SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – A senior Kurdish official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said that they believe the Kurdish leadership should take the “alternative” offered by the US, UK, and UN “very seriously,“ an indication that the PUK takes a different view from President Masoud Barzani who described the offer as not sufficient enough.

”We from the PUK believe that the alternative should be taken very seriously,” Mala Bakhtiyar told reporters in Sulaimani.