Kurdish interior minister to resign – ministry

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Interior minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Othman Hajj Mahmoud, suspended his work to present his official resignation, the ministry’s undersecretary said on Tuesday. “Minister of Peshmerga affairs in the region, Shabakh Jaafar Sheikh Mustapha, will replace the minister for the meantime until a crucial decision can be made regarding the resignation,” Jalal Karim told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The resignation came after disagreements in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK),” he explained. President Jalal Talabani is the leader of the PUK, one of two main Kurdish parties. The other one, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), is led by the Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barazani. SH (P)/SR 1