ANKARA
Turkey has welcomed the new Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and said a new government will be a positive step in facing the crisis in northern Iraq.
A statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said: "The quick formation of the Iraqi government will have an immense contribution to overcome the crisis the country has been struggling with."
The ministry also called on Iraq’s leaders to act together and support the new government.
The selection of a new prime minister means the incumbent Nouri al-Maliki, who had refused U.S. overtures to form a unity government, no longer stands in the way of a government that represents all Iraq’s communities.
Maliki, prime minister since 2006, had been seen as having partially created the current crisis, which has seen Islamic State fighters over-run large parts of northern and western Iraq, through pro-Shiite sectarian policies.
www.aa.com.tr/en
