Kurd groups continue peace talks

Joint meetings between the political bureaus of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan that are continuing in an effort to negotiate peace in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. The third round of peace negotiations started Thursday in Shaqlawa township.

In a five-hour meeting, representatives of the two rival Kurdish factions reviewed the implementation of their previous decisions. In the course of their two earlier rounds of talks held on February 12 and 19, they decided to release all the prisoners of war captured by of parties. "It was decided that the prisoners should be released on Feb. 23, but the step was not implemented yet," Dr. Kamal Fuad of the PUK Political Bureau told the reporters.

"The lists presented by our two delegations were different," Sami Abdul-Rahman of the KDP Political Bureau said. "We hope that we can overcome this difficulty within the next week," he stated.

"We are eager to remove these obstacles." Dr. Fuad said, " the impediments emerged. We did not expected them," he said. "Our two lists of prisoners are not identical."

"Committees concerning UN resolution 986 are to start their duties," Fuad told reporters.

The two sides confirmed that no critical issues were discussed, "but we hope that those major joint concerns are to be discussed in our next sitting," the head of the PUK delegation said. "We do our best to rebuild trust between us."

The KDP's Abdul-Rahman told the reporters that to reach a permanent peace agreement between the two rivals, "We need a long term negotiation."

"Not all meetings will make important resolutions," he stated. "We have decided to make stable peace and important decisions that will resolve whole the crisis between us," he said.

"On the basis of mutual trust we can solve the basic questions," he added.

Meanwhile, the PUK criticized the delaying of releasing of their prisoners of war.

"The peace process in its primary stage facing a number of difficulties," Mr. Fityad Rawandizy, Editor-in-Chief of al-Ittihad weekly of PUK, wrote on Friday.