Talabani junior plans return to northern Iraq to be PM

Qubad Talabani, the Washington representative of the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), has announced that he is planning to come back to Iraq to start working as prime minister in the prime ministerial office of the KRG. Talabani, the son of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, said in the Kurdish Review, a Washington-based monthly Kurdish newspaper, that he is ready to leave his office as “it is time to go back to Kurdistan.” After 12 years representing Kurds in several positions, Talabani is expected to be working in the Prime Minister's Office once he's back in northern Iraq's capital, Arbil. Talabani is reported to have been called back by his father, who is also continuing as secretary-general of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (KYB) and wants his son to be more active in the political affairs of the country. During the interview, Talabani junior dismissed the claims that Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration in northern Iraq, wants him to be minister of oil and natural resources. Talabani dismissed these rumors, adding: “It's true I'm leaving Washington after serving Kurdistan's interests for 12 years. … I'm going back to Kurdistan to work for the prime minister in his office.”