The federal presidency media office said in a statement that the Kurdistan Region newly-president invited the federal president Barham Salih in a phone call to attend his swearing-in ceremony on Monday, June 10, at Saad Abdulla Hall in Erbil city.

“Both sides agreed on the importance of unity and cooperation in the current situation that the area is passing through,” the statement said by carrying on “the attempts should be organized in order to pass the strife and distance Iraq and the Kurdistan region of the complexities,”

They also empathized cooperation and assistance between the Kurdistan Region and the federal government in the future phase, as well as they congratulated each other on occasion of Eid al-Fitr and hoped the occasion resulted in tranquility and an end to the crises, the statement added.

This was the first phone call from a senior official from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) since Salih was elected as the Iraqi president on the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) share after tense contest over who would take the Iraqi presidency position, NRT reported.

The phone call coincided with the deepening strife between the KDP and PUK over the issue of the formation of the new Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) cabinet, the issue of the Kirkuk governorship and the Iraqi justice ministry portfolio, in which the latest is the Kurdish share and both PUK and KDP claim its privileges to hold the position.

The Kurdistan Parliament elected Nechirvan Barzani as new President of the Kurdistan Region with 68 out of 81 votes on Tuesday.

The PUK Politburo said in a statement that the party's caucus would not participate in the session.

“The Kurdistan Democratic Party [KDP] has not stepped up to implement our agreements with it. The KDP always makes obstacles for the nomination of a governor from the PUK [in Kirkuk, as we have agreed on],” the statement read.

Reporter’s code: 50101