Erbil, March 4 (AKnews)- The general director for Erbil international expos said due to the unrest in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq and Arab world almost 45 Arab companies withdraw from the fourth International Exhibition for the Construction Industry in Erbil.
The expo currently underway in the Kurdistan Region capital displays the items of 200 companies from 17 different countries.
Latif Arf told AKnews the deteriorating political situation in Iraq as well as the Arab world has led the 45 companies, most of them Egyptian, cancel their participation in the expo.
The Kurdish official said initially 50 Arab companies withdrew but finally five realized Erbil is safe and participated along other companies.
The influence of the recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia reached more Arab world countries, even the war-torn Iraq. Thousands of Iraqi citizens took into streets and violation broke out in the ensuing confrontations with the security forces. Curfew is imposed in some areas while the security is striving to calm the protesters.
In northern Iraq, only one of the three provinces of Kurdistan, Sulaimaniya, witnessed pubic protests and tensions, too. The rallies there left six killed and over two hundred people wounded. Some buildings of the opposition and a ruling party were also attacked.
Abdullah Abdul-Rahman, the coordinator for Erbil international expos, blamed the withdrawal of the Arab companies on the “political unrest in their own countries, given the fact that most of those who withdrew were from Egypt.”
Lh/AKnews
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