MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. Russia values relations with both Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan, and stands for finding a peaceful political solution to the situation in the region, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The Kremlin spokesman pointed out that Moscow had good relations with both Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurds

Nytimes.com - By PATRICK KINGSLEY and BENJAMIN WEISEROCT

The conversations caught on wiretaps planted by the Turkish police are alleged to show a conspiracy to help Iran skirt American sanctions by trading gold for gas.

Spectator.org - Jay D. Homnick

The name Tillerson is a comforting one to policy makers, suggesting the son of tillers who have learned the soil can only be tilled with toil. But Secretary Tillerson’s unfortunate response to the Kurdish referendum was deficient in both style and substance. You cannot sit on fences in the Middle East, because they are generally mined. In the case of Kurdistan, his miscalculation has led to a misreading by the bad guys abroad. With the reading and ’rithmetic messed up, we are left with the writing. Hopefully we can get a message through the noise.

State Department is doing the math… and in danger of flunking.*

The-american-interest.com - Henri J. Barkey

This Sunday brought a set of dramatic diplomatic tit-for-tat gestures between the United States and Turkey, two NATO allies. Citing the imprisonment of a second Turkish employee at one of its consulates, the U.S. Mission in Turkey declared that it would stop processing non-immigrant visa requests. Within a few hours, the Turkish Embassy in Washington announced similarly that it too would stop processing visa requests.

Rudaw.net

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A prominent Kurdish politician confirmed on Wednesday that there were “abnormal movements” by Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi groups after the liberation of Hawija and in Mosul region towards Peshmerga held territories.

Liberation.fr - By Kendal Nezan *

On 25 September, the people of Iraqi Kurdistan, all tendencies and all confessions combined, massively returned to the polls to decide on its future. Nearly 93% opted for the independence of Kurdistan.

Newyorktimes.com | Opinion By PETER W. GALBRAITH - OCT. 6, 2017 (*)

PARIS — Jalal Talabani, the former Iraqi president who died on Tuesday, was an outsize figure in Middle East politics. A fierce Kurdish nationalist, he was the first democratically elected head of state in a land with a history going back to the dawn of civilization. Kurds will remember him as a giant of their national struggle.

Nytimes.com - By ROD NORDLAND

DIBIS, Iraq — The prisoners were taken to a waiting room in groups of four, and were told to stand facing the concrete wall, their noses almost touching it, their hands bound behind their backs.

Newyorktimes.com

Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader who used pragmatism, guile and an outsize personality to navigate a hazardous course in Mideast politics, surviving guerrilla war, the terrors of Saddam Hussein and shifting alliances to become the first president of Iraq under its postwar Constitution, died on Tuesday in Berlin. He was 83.