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Zebari Says Kurdish Ministers Will Rejoin Iraqi Government


Iraqi's outgoing foreign minister, Hoshiyar Zebbari, says Kurdish ministers who suspended their participation in the government of outgoing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki have rejoined the administration.

"I am back in Baghdad as foreign minister," Reuters quotes Hoshiyar Zebari, a Kurd, as saying on August 20.

On August 15, Maliki announced that he would step down and support Prime Minister-designate Haidar al-Abadi to "safeguard the high interests of the country."

Maliki infuriated Kurdish leaders by accusing them of harboring terrorists after Islamic State (IS) militants swept through northern Iraq in June.

Zebari also urged the world to support Baghdad in its fight against IS militants, calling the group a threat to the world, not just to Iraq's minority ethnic groups.

Islamic State, which seeks hard-line rule under an Islamic caliphate, has seized large swaths of territory in both Iraq and Syria.

Based on reporting by Reuters

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