Kurdistan Presidency denies recent phone calls between Barzani, Tillerson

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – In a statement on Saturday, the spokesman of the Kurdistan Region Presidency (KRP) Omid Sabah denied any phone call had recently taken place between the President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani and the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

On Friday, the official Facebook page of the US Consulate General in Erbil released a statement, declaring on Aug. 4, Tillerson spoke with the Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi and President Barzani on several issues.

According to the statement, the discussions included the fight against the Islamic State (IS) and Washington’s opposition to the Kurdistan Region’s upcoming independence referendum scheduled for Sep. 25, 2017.

In a press briefing on Friday, the US Special Presidential Envoy Brett McGurk mentioned the alleged conversation between Tillerson, Abadi, and President Barzani.

“Tillerson actually spoke over the last couple days with Prime Minister Abadi and with President Barzani of the Kurdistan region about some of these next steps and about our position on some very important issues that Iraq is confronting,” McGurk said.

In a controversial response, KRP spokesman Omid Sabah categorically stated any reports about any recent phone conversation between Tillerson and President Barzani, as published in the media, are far from the truth.

The statement published on the official Facebook page of the US Consulate General in Erbil on Friday was later deleted on Saturday following the KRP’s statement. 

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany