President Raisi to visit Kermanshah on Thursday

Jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas has said he is not legally eligible to run for the presidency, turning down a proposal from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) to be its presidential candidate in the May 14 presidential election, according to a statement from the party.

No regional power has tried to oust the Syrian regime as openly as Turkey. Since the start of war in Syria in 2011, Turkey trained and armed opposition groups, hosted millions of Syrian refugees, and in 2020 even directly clashed with regime forces. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has called Syrian President Bashar al Assad a “murderer” and called on the international community to hold him accountable.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani removed on Monday Central Bank of Iraq Gov. Mustafa Ghaleb Mukheef and head of the Trade Bank of Iraq Salem Chalabi.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday that Ankara dropping its objections to the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO should not be a precondition for the US sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.

The White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, Brett McGurk, will visit Iraq and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR) on Monday to meet with senior Iraqi and Kurdish officials, Kurdish officials told Kurdish media outlets.

A French political analyst Fabrice Balanche believes that the recent attack of a French citizen on Ahmed Kaya Kurdish Cultural Center in Paris is more related to the hatred of immigrants.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has rebuffed Russia's efforts to arrange a meeting with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, citing Turkey's upcoming elections and the presence of Turkish troops on Syrian soil.

In his first interview with international media following Tuesday's drone strike on his main headquarters in northeast Syria, Mazlum Kobane (also known as Mazloum Abdi), the commander of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said that the most likely target of a potential Turkish ground offensive against the Kurdish-controlled areas would be his native city of Kobani.

The Joint Chairman of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Administration of the Euphrates Region condemned the drone attack of the Turkish army on the building of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Administration and considered these attacks to be aimed at destroying the autonomous administration and the democratic experience of northern and eastern Syria.

Prof Birgit Ammann believes it has to be made clear that there is also a lot of serious critique against both the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the People's Defense Units (YPG) and their political environment- within and outside the Kurdish communities and that that the ban of both groups is totally outdated in Germany. A professor from the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, she also said it is virtually impossible and unnecessary to figure the number of the Kurds in the world because Kurds do not need a number to justify their claims.

The International Court of Paris issued its final verdict on the issue of Kurdistan region's oil export through Turkey. The initial evidence shows this vote is in favor of the Iraqi government.

Jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas has said he is not legally eligible to run for the presidency, turning down a proposal from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) to be its presidential candidate in the May 14 presidential election, according to a statement from the party.

Officials from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) will meet on Saturday, the spokesman of the PUK said.

Iraq's top court ruled out against the federal government in Baghdad sending payments to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Local media in the Iraqi Kurdistan region have reported that Khor Mor gas field in the Kurdistan Region’s Chamchamal County in Sulyamaniyeh was targeted with rockets on Friday monring.