Jalal Talabani is clinically dead

Berlin – January 5, 2013 AFP – Figaro – 5.1.2013 – Kurdish political sources said that Iraqi president and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani is “clinically dead” in Berlin hospital where he is treated, the French “Le Figaro” newspaper reported .



Hospitalized for more than fifteen days in Berlin for a stroke, Jalal Talabani, reportedly his health is at its worst, his German doctors feel that he is “too ill to be able to recover” from his stroke, which occurred three weeks ago in Baghdad, Iraq. Currently, the Germans are just trying to keep him alive, also a Kurdish sources said that the Kurdish leader, aged 79, is “clinically dead.” The Iraqi Presidency Office had issued a statement as a response for the French newspaper Figaro which published that the President’s health is deteriorating; the statement said that the President’s health condition is assuring and he is responding for the treatments.

A NEW CEASEFIRE ? : Talabani mediates between Turkey and PKK

Jalal Talabani Iraqi president attempts to start a new ceasefire between Turkey and PKK. - PKK has stepped up the attacks inside Turkey as the country has launched its military operations in Qandil Mountains where the group’s hideouts and strongholds exist.

Jalal Talabani Iraqi president and Secretary General of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has expressed his concerns of the ongoing conflicts and that he intends to maximize his efforts to conciliate between the two sides involved in a deadly war, source inside PUK leaked to the press on Saturday.

He is attempting to persuade the two sides to hold “a new ceasefire”, the source added.

Jalal Talabani likely to retire from office at the end of this year?

Iraq's President Jalal Talabani is likely to retire from office rather than seek another term when his mandate expires at the end of this year, a senior official from his party said on Saturday
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/world/11208742.asp?scr=1

But Talabani, who underwent heart surgery in the United States in August last year, will remain head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, a senior parliamentarian from the Kurdish alliance, Fouad Masoum, said.

"It doesn't mean he will give up his political life. It just means he will not go for the presidential post," he told Reuters. "He wants to take a rest."

A Kurd, Talabani has been president since 2005. Although he does not wield executive power in Iraq, his role is seen as critical in maintaining the country's delicate ethnic balance. His two vice presidents are a Shi'ite and a Sunni Arab.

Their mandates expire at the end of December, when Iraq holds parliamentary polls that could radically alter the power balance in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition government. Parliament elects the three-member Presidency Council.

Masoum said Talabani's role as broker between Iraq's often fractious ethnic and sectarian groups had worn him out."That task is very tough ... working with all Iraqi parties and trying to bring together their diverse viewpoints," Masoum said, adding Talabani's choice "is not a final decision."

His stepping down could come at a dangerous time for Iraq.
Relations between the Shi'ite Arab-led government in Baghdad and largely autonomous Kurdistan in the north are likely to remained heated. Disputes over territory along the Kurdistan border and oil rights show no sign of being resolved.

Though Talabani has usually sought to stay out of Iraq's political wrangling, his council's veto has sometimes shot down legislation that would have been divisive.

In July last year, he blocked a provincial elections law that his fellow Kurds bitterly opposed because they feared it would set back their goal of controlling the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. The law was later redrafted to please all sides.