Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visited the Kurdistan region on Sunday for the first time in more than two years, in a symbolic step towards resolving a long-running dispute over oil and land that has strained Iraq's unity to the limit.
Better relations with the Kurds could take some pressure off the country's Shia leadership, which is facing a surge of violence it blames on Sunni Islamist insurgents invigorated by the civil war in neighbouring Syria. The Shia premier was met on the tarmac at Arbil airport by Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani, who smiled and shook hands with a man he has previously likened to a dictator.
Maliki's last official trip to Kurdistan was in 2010, when the "Arbil Agreement" was struck, allowing him to form a power-sharing government among majority Shia Muslims, Sunnis and ethnic Kurds after months of wrangling. That deal, like others thereafter, was never fully implemented, and the central government in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region have since been at odds over oil and disputed territories along their internal boundary.
Sunday's rare visit produced little of substance on those issues, but both sides said there was now a positive atmosphere in which to hold more talks. "Neither I nor President Barzani have a magic wand," said Maliki at a joint news conference following a cabinet session and a one-on-one meeting between the two leaders. "The important thing is our shared desire to reach solutions." Barzani warned last week that, unless the current talks succeed, the self-ruled region would be forced to seek a "new form of relations" with Baghdad.