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Hezbollah warns Israel against ‘playing with time’ over maritime border dispute

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Reuters

Publishing date: Jul 31, 2022

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s armed Hezbollah group issued a video on Sunday showing vessels involved in the Israeli offshore oil and gas industry and warned against “playing with time,” underlining its threat of military escalation amid maritime border demarcation talks.
Lebanon and Israel are locked in U.S.-mediated negotiations to delineate their shared maritime border that would help determine which oil and gas resources belong to which country and pave the way for more exploration.

Lebanese officials have said they are optimistic that this round of talks can result in a deal after years of on-and-off indirect negotiations, but Hezbollah has warned it is ready to prevent Israel from extracting hydrocarbons should Lebanon not be allowed to do so. 
Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006 and have traded fire on several occasions since but have avoided a large-scale confrontation.
Sunday’s video, which also contains a rare glimpse of Hezbollah weaponry, was broadcast on the group’s Al-Manar TV station hours before the U.S. official mediating the maritime dispute, Amos Hochstein, was scheduled to meet Lebanese officials in Beirut.
It was issued by Hezbollah’s War Media that the group uses to broadcast footage of military operations and battles, and contains images of ships involved in drilling for and extracting hydrocarbons, along with what appear to be their coordinates.

 
The video begins with the words of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during a recent speech in which he warned that “playing with time is not useful” on the maritime issue.
“The message is a serous threat,” a top Al-Manar correspondent said on Twitter.
A statement on Saturday by the U.S. State Department said Hochstein’s Beirut visit would aim to facilitate talks on the maritime boundary.
“Reaching a resolution is both necessary and possible, but can only be done through negotiations and diplomacy,” it said.
A senior Israeli official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Hochstein would represent a new Israeli proposal that “includes a solution that would allow the Lebanese to develop the gas reserves in the disputed area while preserving Israel’s commercial rights.”
If this reaches agreement, it would entail “some drilling there” by the Lebanese, the Israeli official said without elaborating.
“The offer that has been relayed is a serious proposal that can transform Lebanon from a country of economic ruin and energy crises to a natural gas-producing country, by enabling it to cultivate this resource,” the official said. (Reporting by Timour Azhari and Laila Bassam in Beirut and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Timour Azhari; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Erdogan says Turkey not looking to take Syrian territory

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The Citizen – August 20, 2022
URL: https://www.citizen.co.za/news/news-world/3176392/erdogan-says-turkey-not-looking-to-take-syrian-territory/
Turkey said it was responding to a strike on its own positions along the border that killed two soldiers.
 

Turkish President and leader of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a speech during his party’s parliamentary group meeting at the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara on June 1, 2022. (Photo by Adem ALTAN / AFP)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Turkey was not looking to seize any Syrian territory despite stepping up its attacks against Kurdish forces in the war-torn country’s north.
Erdogan’s comments came days after a Turkish air strikes on a Syrian border post run by regime forces reportedly killed 17 fighters.
A war monitor said that both Kurds who man some of the Syrian border posts and regime forces were killed in the Turkish raids.
The official Syrian news agency said three government soldiers died.

Turkey said it was responding to a strike on its own positions along the border that killed two soldiers.
The exchange of fire marked one of the largest escalations since Ankara and Damascus traded attacks in 2020.
Erdogan appeared to try and calm the tensions in comments to reporters on board his return flight from his first wartime visit to Ukraine.

Syria suffers from spiraling fuel costs, collapsing economy

Syria is suffering from spiraling fuel costs and a collapsing economy. Now local authorities have raised petrol prices e

“We do not have eyes on the territory of Syria because the people of Syria are our brothers,” Turkish media quoted Erdogan as saying.

“The regime must be aware of this.”
Erdogan’s visit to Ukraine came two weeks after he flew to Sochi for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin that also covered Syria.
Putin’s support was instrumental in helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad survive an 11-year conflict against rebel groups backed in part by Turkey.
Erdogan said he told Putin that he wanted to cooperate more closely with Russia in northern Syrian regions where Ankara has been targeting Kurds it views as “terrorists”.
“We are in contact with Russia on every step that we take in Syria,” Erdogan said.
Reproachment with Assad?
The border clash came with fears mounting that Turkey may be preparing to launch its fourth cross-border offensive against Kurdish forces since 2016.
Erdogan accuses the Kurdish fighters in Syria — allied with the United States against Islamic State jihadists — as outlawed militants with links to groups waging a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.
He repeated his catchphrase on Friday that Turkish forces could strike Syrian Kurds “suddenly one night”.

But he also hinted that Turkey may be open to a possible reproachment with Assad after fiercely opposing his regime.
“There should be no resentment in politics,” Erdogan was quoted as saying.

Syria Kurds handover 146 IS-affiliated women and children to Tajikistan

Syria’s semi-autonomous Kurdish administration hands Tajikistan 146 women and children related to Islamic State group jihadists, according to a Kurdish official, in the first such repatriation to the ex-Soviet state. The women “did not commit any crimes or terrorist acts in northeastern Syria,” says Kurdish foreign affairs official Fanar al-Kaeet.

He pointed out that Turkey had made up with its one-time rivals Egypt and the United Arab Emirates in the past few years.
“We need to secure further steps with Syria,” he said without fully explaining what those might involve.
Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu sparked protests in northern Syrian regions under Ankara’s control last week by calling for a “reconciliation” between rebel groups it backs and Assad.
He also revealed last year holding his first brief meeting with a Syrian foreign minister since 2011.
“You should always be at peace,” Erdogan said on Friday. “You should have the opportunity to meet at any time.”

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MHP leader calls Kılıçdaroğlu’s visit to Uludere ‘provocative’

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The Hurriyetdailynews.com – Click Here
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) chair Devlet Bahçeli criticized the main opposition leader’s visit to southeastern Şırnak province last week, saying that the move was aimed at provocation.
 

“Trying to open crusted wounds is a pure provocation. Whoever dreams of taking out Roboski from Uludere and Kurdistan from Türkiye, their fate will be disastrous,” Bahçeli said in a written statement on Aug. 8.
The Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is “openly attacking the state, recklessly arguing that it is rotten, and he is not content with that as immediately after his visit to Erzurum, he rushed to visit Şırnak’s Uludere to open the crusted wounds, which is a pure provocation,” Bahçeli said.
He criticized Kılıçdaroğlu for using the word “Roboski” and accused him of using “the dirty style of” the PKK.
Bahçeli claimed that the visit of Kılıçdaroğlu to Uludere district 11 years after the tragic incident was aimed at provocation.
Last week, the CHP leader visited the southeastern Anatolian province of Şırnak’s Uludere district, also known as Roboski in Kurdish.

Meeting with the families of the victims, Kılıçdaroğlu promised to shed light on the tragic incident of 2011 there, in which 34 civilians were killed by the Turkish army as they were mistaken for PKK terrorists.
“This pain has to be relieved to let justice come to this country. This incident should be resolved and only after that we can make peace with each other,” Kılıçdaroğlu said on Aug. 4.
A total of 34 civilians, who were mistaken for PKK terrorists, smuggling goods into Türkiye, were killed on Dec. 28, 2011, in attacks carried out by F-16s and unmanned aerial vehicles in the incidents. The families and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) have long been accusing the government of not conducting a proper investigation into the incident.

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Getting rid of the Oslo Accords authority is the first step to Palestinian liberation

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August 8, 2022 at 1:45 pm | Published in: Africa, Egypt, Middle East, NATO, Opinion, Palestine

(L to R) Islamic Jihad movement ranking members Daoud Shehab, Khaled al-Batsh, and Muhammad al-Hindi walk outside the VIP hall at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip on March 15, 2021 [SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images]
 

Dr Amira Abo el-Fetouh
August 8, 2022 at 1:45 pm – Middleeastmonitor.com

It was no surprise that, even while negotiating with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement through Egyptian mediators to defuse the tension in the Gaza Strip following the arrest of the movement’s senior figure Bassam Al-Saadi in Jenin last week, Israel launched an aerial bombardment of the besieged territory. Such deception is in its nature, so there is no need to tire ourselves looking for the reasons for its treacherous attack. It is worth remembering, though, that another General Election is in the offing and interim Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid needs to show his credentials as a strong leader in the face of an electoral challenge from the extreme right-wing. It was the same with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel’s archenemy Iran may well be the real target here, after both Lapid and Netanyahu failed to convince the US to launch a military strike against it, and Lapid has failed to form a military alliance — “a Middle East NATO” — with Arab allies against the Iranians. So why not target Iran’s allies in the region, such as Islamic Jihad in Palestine, which gets financial and military support from Tehran. The Secretary-General of the movement, Ziad Al-Nakhalah, was actually in Tehran last week. And I wonder if this attack planned and agreed during the visit of US President Joe Biden to Israel last month.
Whatever the reasons for Israel’s latest military offensive against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, this is the standard doctrine followed by the occupation state. It is a destructive presence in the region and continues to give its devastating military operations names which promote its twisted narrative. Hence, “Operation Breaking Dawn” fired missiles at civilian areas and killed dozens of Palestinians, including children and women while Israel claimed that “militants” were the targets. Hundreds more were injured as their homes were blown up around them. All of this in order to kill two Islamic Jihad officials; Tayseer Al-Jaabari and Khaled Saeed Mansour were alleged to have been planning to attack Israel. Palestinian civilians paid the price of Israel’s deadly impunity.
READ: Kais Saied’s new republic in Tunisia
There has been relative calm in Gaza since the Sword of Jerusalem battle in May last year which united Palestinians across their occupied land and beyond. They acted as one to pull Gaza out of its isolation imposed by the unjust Israel-led siege and to defend Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque. The leaders of Hamas managed, with tact and intelligence, to link the resistance in the Gaza Strip to the city of Jerusalem in the rules of engagement, uniting Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Palestinian territories occupied since 1948 — Israel — in the struggle against the Israeli enemy. The Palestinian people rallied behind the resistance, regardless of their own affiliations, which not only came from Hamas, but also Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades and Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which separated from the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas’s puppet Palestinian Authority.
A joint operations room swung into action as part of an unprecedented united front. It will go down in history and remain imprinted on the collective memory. Israel will not forget what happened, and will be in constant fear of its internal front cracking and the collapse of the state with Palestinian resistance from the river to the sea.
For the first time since the Nakba, the Palestinian struggle has gathered pace in every part of occupied historic Palestine, thus thwarting the Israeli plot to separate Gaza from its Palestinian surroundings. From its stronghold in Gaza, the resistance managed to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque, and put the occupied city of Jerusalem under its protection.
While such unity is still in Zionist minds, it has fallen away from the Palestinians. They have not used it to forge a new and young national leadership to lead the liberation process instead of the puppet authority created by the Oslo Accords. Israel used its latest assault on Gaza to destroy the united front and the other positive results of the Sword of Jerusalem battle. The occupation state wants to have us all believe that the West Bank and 1948-occupied Palestine are entirely separate from Gaza; to end armed resistance in the West Bank; and to confront popular Palestinian solidarity in the rest of the occupied land. To achieve this, it mobilised ten battalions of border guards in Palestinian towns in the areas occupied in 1948 to confront solidarity demonstrations condemning the occupation, like those that took place in 2021.
READ: How do you destroy a society without war?
The Israelis also want to drive wedges between the resistance factions and thus destroy the joint operations room. This is why they tried to keep Hamas neutral in the latest offensive by stating openly that they were not targeting the movement but were intent on hitting Al-Quds Brigades of Islamic Jihad due to their role in confronting military incursions across the occupied West Bank. Jenin, for example, has become home to armed resistance cells that challenge Israeli security forces and are not under the control of Abbas’s PA security agents.
Al-Quds Brigades responded to this blatant aggression by bombing illegal Israeli settlements in the south of the occupation state, injuring many Israelis. The occupied city of Jerusalem and the settlement of Sderot faced rocket fire, as did other targets in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip, including a building in the city of Ashkelon. Israeli websites published a video of the building with smoke rising from it.
The puppet PA and its security coordination agents were missing completely from the scene and were content to watch this unfold as Palestinians were killed and their funerals took place; and as their homes were destroyed. Was the PA happy with these images because Israel was saving it from having to tackle these rebels? The PA is now a burden on the Palestinians, and getting rid of it is the first step towards liberation from the Israeli occupation.
Gaza is defending the dignity of an entire nation, and pays the price of this with the blood of its children. It is the fortress of dignity in a nation whose rulers have betrayed them and their people continue to be disappointed. Gaza is the last fortress of resistance in the nation today, and tomorrow it will be the first fortress of victory and the liberation of Palestine, God willing, with its strong people who are on the true path, unafraid of their enemy and unharmed by those who let them down.
There is nothing more beautiful to end with than the words about Gaza written by the late poet Mahmoud Darwish: “Gaza does not have horses, or jet fighters, or magic wands, or offices in capitals. Gaza frees herself of our attributes, our language, and of her conquerors all at once. And when we run into her, once upon a dream, she may not recognise us because she was born of fire while we were born of waiting and crying over our homes.”
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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Iraq Kurd protesters tear-gassed, MPs detained: AFP Official

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Issued on: 06/08/2022 – 19:48Modified: 06/08/2022 – 19:46 – France24.com

People gather for a rally called for by the New Generation Kurdish opposition party in Iraq’s northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah in the autonomous Kurdistan region Shwan MOHAMMED AFP

Sulaimaniyah (Iraq) (AFP) – Security forces in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets Saturday to disperse anti-government protesters and detained seven opposition lawmakers, an AFP journalist and an official said.

The opposition New Generation party had called for demonstrations in Sulaimaniyah and other cities in the country’s north in protest against deteriorating living conditions, alleged corruption and authoritarian practices by the regional government.
Dozens of police vehicles were deployed to the centre of Sulaimaniyah, and security forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets once several hundred protesters had gathered, an AFP correspondent reported.
Security forces stopped journalists from taking images of the crackdown.
Six New Generation lawmakers in the federal parliament in Baghdad who were preparing to join the protests, and another from the regional parliament, were taken in for questioning, the bloc’s chief Srwa Abdulwahid told AFP.
One of those detained, Ribar Abdelrahman, told AFP later that he and two others had been released.
Human rights associations regularly criticise Iraqi Kurdish authorities for carrying out arbitrary arrests, suppressing protests and attacking press freedoms.
Keen on projecting an image as a relative haven of stability and tolerance in war-battered Iraq, the autonomous region has long been dominated by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by the Barzani family, and the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), headed by the Talabani clan.
The crackdown in the Kurdistan region comes as supporters of powerful Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada Sadr have been holding a sit-in in the gardens around parliament in Baghdad’s normally secure Green Zone, home to government and diplomatic buildings.
The cleric’s supporters occupied the legislature last Saturday and remained inside the building for several days, protesting against a rival Shiite bloc’s pick for the premiership.

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Scores of MPs and journalists arrested in Iraqi Kurdistan ahead of protests against corruption

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STEVE SWEENEY
SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, 2022 – Morningstaronline.co.uk 

SCORES of parliamentarians and journalists have been detained by security forces in Iraqi Kurdistan as protests took place in a number of the region’s major cities.
The demonstrations, called by the New Generation Movement (NGM), had demanded the payment of salaries to public-sector workers, the holding of regional elections and a cut in the price of oil and gas.
The opposition party’s offices in Slemani were surrounded by about 30 military vehicles ahead of the protest.
Rebwar Abdulrahman, the spokesman for the New Generation bloc in the Iraqi parliament, and NGM MPs Badria Ibrahim, Arian Taugozi, Omed Mohammed, Mofaq Hussein and Vian Abdul Aziz were arrested.
In addition, Mzhda Mahmood, an NGM parliamentarian in the Kurdistan Region’s parliament, was detained in Ranya during the protest.
NGM president Shaswar Abdulwahid announced last Thursday that protests against corruption and the mounting crises in the Kurdistan Region would take place at the weekend.
“Saturday will be the day to regain your rights and shake the power,” he said.
But security forces swooped ahead of the demonstrations, with the NGM saying that more than 40 of its members and supporters had been hauled in, along with a number of reporters from the NRT television station.
The Slemani security directorate disputed the NGM statement, claiming that “no MPs or journalists have been arrested.”
However, the Metro Centre for Journalists Right and Advocacy said that 11 journalists had been detained by security forces across the Kurdistan Region in the past 24 hours.
“As Metro Centre, we call for the immediate release of all the arrested and we announce that security forces have raided the houses and offices of a number of journalists to arrest them,” director Rahman Gharib said.
Previous protests have been met with a brutal clampdown and the alleged use of torture. At least eight people were shot dead during protests in December 2020 over the late payment of salaries.
Last December, the Morning Star reported from the ground during student protests during which allegations of torture were made.
Sources said that the international community continues to support the “corrupt Barzani regime while our people are dying,” urging the British consulate to break its silence.
“They cannot continue to ignore us,” the source said. “Turkey is bombing us and they say nothing. Kurds are being shot and they say nothing. Do our lives not matter to them?”

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No regime changes or early elections without resuming sessions of elected parliament’: al-Maliki

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No will can be imposed on Iraq except the will of the entire people and through its constitutional institutions represented by the elected parliament,” said al-Maliki.
 Dler S. Mohammed   2022/08/08 23:11 

Iraq’s former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Baghdad on Dec. 3, 2011. (Photo: Hadi Mizban/AP)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The head of the State of Law coalition, Nuri al-Maliki, ruled out dissolving the federal parliament, changing the system, or holding early elections unless the sessions of the elected parliament resume.
Al-Maliki said this in a televised speech on the occasion of Ashura, while thousands of Sadrists were gathering in the vicinity of Parliament to demand early elections.
“Iraq is a country of components, and its people are made up of sects, components, and ethnicities, and no will can be imposed on it except the will of the entire people and through its constitutional institutions represented by the elected parliament,” said al-Maliki.
He continued, “There is no dissolving to the Parliament, no regime change, and no early elections except for the parliament’s return to holding its sessions, and it is the one who discusses these demands and what it decides we proceed with.”
Read More: ‘No date is set for early elections’: Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission
Al-Maliki had previously accused supporters of the Sadrist movement of “overthrowing” the legislative authority and spreading “an atmosphere of terror and fear” and called for dialogue and understanding.
Al-Maliki is one of the most prominent opponents of the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr. They have always exchanged accusations over the struggle to form a government.

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President Barzani to discuss elections with Kurdish political parties

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August 8, 2023
Rudaw
 

   

President Nechirvan Barzani speaking in an event in Erbil on December 8, 2022. Photo: President Barzani’s office

 ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani is expected to meet with the heads of Kurdish political parties later this week to discuss the Region’s upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for October, a senior official from the presidency told Rudaw on Monday.

The meeting will take place on Wednesday, and will also be attended by The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) Special Representative Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Fawzi Hariri, the Kurdistan Region Presidency chief of staff, told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman on Monday.
The Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections are set to occur on October 1, but the process has been hindered by disagreements between the Kurdish political parties over the Region’s current commission and election laws, casting doubt on the likelihood of the vote to be held on time.
Hennis-Plasschaert called for equalizing the Kurdistan Region’s electoral playing field ahead of elections scheduled for October 1 during a UN Security Council meeting in May, focusing on solutions that represent the interests of all residents of the Region.
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) President Masoud Barzani and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Bafel Talabani held a meeting in Erbil on Thursday, discussing the latest developments in Iraq’s political climate, and hoping to unite Kurdish political forces against the challenges they face in Iraq and the Region.
The PUK and a number of other Kurdish political blocs have claimed that the electoral regulations are outdated and in need of amendment prior to October’s vote, a suggestion opposed by KDP, arguing that amending the laws requires the agreement of all parliamentary blocs.
“Even if all the parties reach an agreement today, we don’t believe the electoral commission will be able to organize it [the election] on October 10,” Hemin Hawrami, deputy speaker of the Kurdistan Region parliament, said in July.

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Maliki says ‘no dissolution of parliament’ without return to sessions

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23 hours ago
 

Chenar Chalak@Chenar_Qader

 

 

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki delivering a speech on August 8, 2022. Photo: Afaq TV

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday said that there will be no dissolution of the parliament or early elections without the return of the legislature to holding sessions, following calls from longtime political rival Muqtada al-Sadr for a snap parliamentary vote.
Influential Shiite leader Sadr on Wednesday called for the dissolution of the current legislature and holding snap parliamentary elections in Iraq amidst demonstrations and a sit-in at the Iraqi parliament building by his supporters in protest of the Coordination’s Framework prime minister pick.
“No dissolution of the parliament, or a change in the system, or early elections without the return of the Council [of Representatives] to holding sessions. For it [the parliament] is the one who discusses these demands, and what it decides, we will follow,” said Maliki in a televised video statement on Monday evening.
Maliki stressed that Iraq is a country of many components and that “no will shall be imposed upon it” unless it is one that reflects the entirety of the Iraqi people.
On Saturday, Sadr stated that there were “no alternatives” to the dissolution of the parliament as it has become a popular, national, and political demand and has received “positive responses” from Iraq’s various components.
Sadr’s calls for snap elections were welcomed by numerous major figures and parties in the Iraqi political scene, including the pro-Iran Shiite parliamentary faction known as the Coordination Framework, which said that it supports any “constitutional path” to resolve the current political impasse in Iraq.
Iraq held early elections in October 2021, but has failed to form a government 10 months after the vote due to disagreements between the legislature’s main blocs over the formation of the government.
The Coordination Framework, of which Maliki is a prominent figure, opposed Sadr’s attempts at forming a national majority government, leading the latter to withdraw all 73 MPs of his bloc from the parliament in June.

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Massoud Barzani Fast Facts

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ErieNewsNow.com
August 8, 2023

Massoud Barzani Fast Facts

Monday, August 8th 2022, 6:10 PM EDT

CNN Editorial Research

Here is a look at the life of Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Iraq.

 

Personal

 

Birth date: August 16, 1946

Birth place: Mahabad, Kurdistan, Iran

Birth name: Massoud Barzani

Father: General Mustafa Barzani, was chief of the military of the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad

Mother: Hamayil Khan

Marriage: Married (name unavailable publicly)

Children: Eight children

Religion: Sunni Muslim

 

Other Facts

 

Fluent in Kurmanji (Kurdish), Arabic, Farsi (Persian) and English.

Leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) since 1979.

The KDP has an estimated 10,000 fighters and controls the northwestern part of Iraqi Kurdistan along the border of Syria, Turkey and Iran.

Barzani was born on the same day that the KDP was founded in 1946.

 

Timeline

i government and Kurds granting some autonomy.

June 1975 – Former leader Jalal Talabani leaves the KDP to form the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), forcing a reorganization of the KDP.

1979 – Escapes an assassination attempt in Vienna, Austria.

1979 – Elected president of the KDP after the death of his father.

1994 – The Kurds in northern Iraq are divided into eastern and western political factions. Barzani is named the head of the northwestern region as head of the KDP. A parallel government is established in the east under the PUK.

1994-1998 – Barzani leads a war against the PUK. A peace agreement is reached in August 1998.

October 4, 2002 – Barzani and Talabani, leader of the PUK, apologize to the families of the victims of their internal war.

2003 – Becomes a member of the Iraqi Governing Council following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

January 30, 2005 – Barzani is one of approximately 7,700 candidates in Iraq’s first free elections in over 50 years.

June 2005 – Elected president of the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq.

July 25, 2009 – Reelected president of the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq with 71% of the vote.

July 2013 – The Kurdish parliament votes to extend Barzani’s presidential term an additional two years.

June 23, 2014 – In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Barzani gives his strongest-ever indication that his region, Iraqi Kurdistan, would seek formal independence from the rest of Iraq.

June 2014 – Nephew, Nechirvan Barzani, is appointed Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s cabinet.

June 27, 2014 – Announces that the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, and other disputed areas in Northern Iraq, are henceforth part of the Kurdish autonomous region, after the Iraqi central government fails to hold a long-awaited referendum.

December 11, 2016 – US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter makes a surprise visit to a military airfield near Mosul to discuss the next steps in the fight against ISIS with Barzani and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi.

September 25, 2017 – Iraqi Kurds cast their vote in a controversial referendum to achieve independence from Iraq. Barzani was the key orchestrator in the quest for the complete Kurdish autonomy. The referendum fails.

October 29, 2017 – Barzani’s office announces that he will step down as president as of November 1. This comes after Kurds voted overwhelmingly in favor of secession the previous month.

May 28, 2019 – Barzani’s nephew, Nechirvan Barzani, is elected president, making him the second president of the Kurdish Regional Government.

June 11, 2019 – Barzani’s son, Masrour Barzani, is elected Prime Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government the day after his cousin is sworn in as president.

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