US OPENS GENERAL CONSULATE IN IRAQ'S KURDISTAN http://www.namnewsnetwork.org/v2/read.php?id=163722

The United States has opened a general consulate in Arbil, the capital of north Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. “Today, we are opening the first general consulate in the Kurdistan Region, that shall represent the American people, through cooperation with our colleagues in Basra and Baghdad, to cover the cities of Arbil, Sulaimaniya and Dohuk,” the new American Consul General in Kurdistan Alex Scares said in his speech at the opening of the consulate Sunday.On his part, the US Defence Department’s Undersecretary Thomas Nice said: “The opening of our consulates in southern and northern Iraq,

together with our embassy in Baghdad, shall help to link this active (Kurdistan) Region, that has no other synonym in Iraq’s national policy.”The President of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region Massoud Barzani, in his speech, reiterated the significance of the opening of the American Consulate, saying: “Today is an important day in the relations of the Kurdistan people with America, crowning the long-range relations that we have shed bloods to achieve it today.” “We shall continue our positive role in Iraq and try to settle all our problems in the Kurdistan Region,” Barzani said.

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