The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Massoud Barzani has resumed publication of its Arabic-language daily in the Iraqi capital for the first time in nearly 30 years. Al-Taakhi (Brotherhood) carried an interview with Mr Barzani in the first edition to appear in Baghdad since the newspaper was banned in the mid-1970s. Copies of the newspaper were also available in KDP-controlled Arbil, capital of the Kurdish region that had been outside the control of the deposed regime of Saddam Hussein since 1991. Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which shared control of the Western-protected Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq with the KDP since 1991, resumed publishing its Arabic-language weekly newspaper Al-Ittihad (Union) in Baghdad in late April.
| Having a free press running will do as much to achieve our ends in Iraq as anything else we do — except for implementing freedom of religion... |
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