The Kurdish regional government Tuesday accused the central government in Iraq of stirring up political trouble with the Kurds by politically exploiting the killing four days ago of an Iraqi journalist by a Kurdish officer in Baghdad.
"It's regrettable that the Iraqi prime minister used strange and inconvenient words like "blood for blood" after the incident, which is outside law, state governance and the culture of coexistence and democracy," said the office of Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), in a statement.
The Kurdistan presidency office regretted the killing of journalist Mohammed Bdiewi and expressed condolences to his family, and hoped that the incident would be settled within the judicial system away from the interference of politicians, Xinhua reported citing the statement.
The statement further presented an offer to the central government to choose between fraternity with Kurds or end the problematic relationship.
"The people of Kurdistan decided to live in fraternity, harmony and coexistence in Iraq, but if the leaders of Baghdad do not want this fraternity and keep creating troubles in various ways, we could sit down with them and end this problematic relationship once and for all," the statement said.
Bdiewi, head of the Free Iraq Radio station, was Saturday shot dead in Baghdad's central district of Karrada after he had a dispute with an officer and soldiers of the Kurdish brigade guarding a presidential site belonging to Iraq's Kurdish President Jalal Talabani.
The lack of confidence among the Iraqi factions is seen as the main reason behind bringing Kurdish troops to protect the Kurdish leaders in Baghdad.
The KRG is the official ruling body of the predominantly Kurdish region of northern Iraq referred to as Iraqi Kurdistan.
Kurds are an ethnic group covering present-day Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria.
