In the meeting with Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and his deputy Qubad Talabani at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, both sides reaffirmed commitment to resolve the issues through dialogue and within the scope of the Iraqi constitution.

According to NRT they also discussed oil issues and decided that the Iraqi Oil Ministry and KRG Natural Resources Ministry would hold a special meeting regarding crude oil exports.

Abadi, during the interview with the Egyptian newspaper al-Youm al-Sabaa, said that he also recognized that "The Kurdish problem is part of history, we respect the aspirations of the Kurds, and the Kurdish problem was the battle of all successive Iraqi governments.”

In the interview, Abadi said that a number of Kurdish authorities are still determined to split from Iraq, which has resulted in continued challenges between Erbil and Baghdad. In addition, he reiterated Baghdad’s disagreement towards establishing a Kurdish state and his support for a united Iraq.

Abadi told al-Youm al-Sabaa “We object to the absence of transparency or accountability in the Kurdistan region and we reject their administration of things there. It is managed in a partisan manner.”

He said, “We in Iraq have for years relied on quotas in high political positions, considering that the elections are party-based and quota-based, because the Iraqi parliament is formed on a party basis.”

Relations between Erbil and Baghdad hit their lowest point in the aftermath of the referendum held by the Kurdistan Region, which saw 92.7 percent of voters say “yes” to independence.

Reporter’s code: 50101