Turkish foreign minister to visit Iraq this week

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed al-Sahhaf on Sunday told Kurdistan 24 that Hakan Fidan, the minister of foreign affairs of Turkey, will visit Baghdad on Wednesday.

Al-Sahhaf said the Turkish Foreign Minister would meet with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein during his visit to the country in order to discuss bilateral relations. They would also discuss joint security issues to maintain regional security and review the most important common interests.

“As we have always condemned unilateral actions that cause material and human damage to Iraq, we will discuss this with the Turkish Foreign Minister,” he added.

A spokesperson also said that the issue of water shortages and the siphoning of Iraqi water by Turkish dams would be discussed between the two countries.

Later Kurdistan Regional Government Spokesperson Peshawa Hawramani confirmed al-Sahhaf's announcement. 

On July 5, Fuad Hussein met with Fidan during his participation in the Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement Coordinating Bureau in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Earlier on March 21, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani visited Turkey and met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, where they discussed the water crisis.

Turkey's dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are believed to have reduced the water flow to Iraq by approximately 75 percent since 1975.

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