Iraqi Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani answered journalists' questions about the agenda after a ministerial board meeting held in the capital, Erbil.

Reminding them that they carried out a telephone conversation with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Barzani said, "We both reiterated that the relations between Ankara and the Kurdistan Region need to be developed more. The PM hopes to visit Turkiye in the near future to develop ties further.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Barzani said his government is against the PKK using Kurdistan Region territory to attack neighboring countries."Why are these operations conducted in the Kurdistan Region? They are conducted in the Kurdistan Region because PKK has occupied large parts of Kurdistan and used them to attack Turkiye and then return," he said.

During Wednesday’s press conference, Barzani also issued his government’s stance on Iraq’s May 12 parliamentary election and the ongoing manual recount of votes. He said he had always supported the manual recount of votes to address the allegations of fraud raised by the Kurdistani parties – the important step now is to achieve Kurdish unity in Baghdad.

"We believe that in Baghdad it is necessary for all of us to unitedly participate to defend the rights of the Kurdistan Region," he said.

The ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is planning to meet with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) to discuss an alliance, which other Kurdish parties are invited to join, he said.

ILKHA