UN envoy congratulates new president of Kurdistan regional Government

The senior United Nations envoy for Iraq today congratulated Masoud Barzani on his inauguration as President of the Kurdistan Regional Government, and assured him that the UN was committed to helping Kurdistan and the Baghdad Government establish good relations.

In other news, Ashraf Qazi, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Iraq, welcomed the role that the Secretary-General of the Iraqi Islamic Party, Mohsen Abdel Hamid, is playing along with other Sunni political leaders in supporting the constitutional process.

The recent discussions between the two men focused on the efforts underway to enable groups and parties that were not represented in the Transitional National Assembly to participate in the drafting of the constitution and participate in the subsequent referendum and elections scheduled for October and December this year.