US Vice-President Dick Cheney in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil on Tuesday invited the President of the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan Masud Barzani to visit the United States, stating that Iraq's Kurdish region was an important mediator in Iraq's reconciliation. ( dpa )
Cheney also expressed his admiration for the Kurdish region for protecting its people for 17 years from former dictator Saddam Hussein.
The US official was said to be meeting with Barzani to discuss Turkey's military operations last month against rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who are operating from the region's mountainous areas.
The operations, backed by the Washington, were harshly criticized by Iraq's Kurds as an encroachment on Iraq's sovereignty.