Hilmi al-Asmar writes for the Jordanian newspaper Al-Dustur, April 7:
Barzani accuses extremist Shi'i, Sunni forces of fuelling the conflict, welcomes hosting Palestinians residing in Kurdistan
Arbil, Iraqi Kurdistan — Mas'ud Barzani, head of the Iraqi Kurdistan region and leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, welcomed hosting the Palestinian refugees residing in Iraqi Kurdistan and offered them a safe haven in the region that is more than a self rule region and less than a state.Barzani said during a meeting with a Jordanian delegation comprising deputies, journalists, and activists from Jordanian civil society institutions and parties that the Palestinians are in their homeland in Iraqi Kurdistan and not as guests. He added: If 22 Arab states have closed the doors in the face of the Palestinians who are residing in Iraq, the doors of Kurdistan will be open to them. He added that there are 18,000 Arab families that live in security among the Kurdish families in the Kurdistan region, explaining that he will discuss this issue with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Barzani said he is ready to send Kurdish troops to Baghdad and other Iraqi areas where the Palestinians reside to protect them, noting that the areas where Palestinians live and where there are Iraqi Kurdish troops are secure and protected by these forces. Barzani, however, said that a Palestinian delegation visited the region some time ago and explicitly asked not to resettle the Palestinians in the Kurdistan region. Barzani added: If the Palestinians residing in Iraqi are reassembled in one area, then the Iraqi Kurdish forces are ready to protect them, expressing anger and strong denunciation of the attacks against the Palestinian brothers.
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Translation from Arabic by BBC Monitoring service.
Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouthi says [2] Israel should let the refugees come to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
See our last post on the plight of Palestinians in Iraq [3] and in the diaspora generally [4]. See our last posts on Iraq [5] and the struggle in Kurdistan [6].
