Iraq’s President Hospitalized With ‘Medical Emergency’

Mr. Talabani’s illness cast a shadow over the Kurdish lands in the north where he once fought a guerrilla war and where he now lives, and added a new element of uncertainty to the country’s divided politics a year after the departure of the American military left Iraq’s leaders to steer the country’s shaky democracy on their own.

Officials and doctors said Mr. Talabani, 79, who has been treated abroad for medical conditions in recent years, was in stable condition, but privately other officials suggested his condition was more serious. A hospital official, as well as a high-level government official — both of whom requested anonymity out of respect for Mr. Talabani’s family — said the president was in a coma.

The deteriorating health of Mr. Talabani, a Kurd, comes at a time of heightened political tensions between Iraq’s central government and the semiautonomous Kurdish region. A dispute over land and oil that has festered for years has turned more serious in recent weeks as government forces have sought to take more control of security in disputed territories near Kirkuk, a northern city claimed by both the Kurds and the central government.

Mr. Talabani exerts sway over Iraq’s national affairs beyond the limited powers of his office, which is largely ceremonial. He is one of the few national leaders — perhaps the only one — who is seen as a unifying figure with the power, at times, to bring Iraq’s many factions to the bargaining table. His absence from politics would have a profound influence in Baghdad, where Mr. Talabani has been trying to mediate a continuing political crisis that at its core is a contest for power among the country’s three main groups: Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

At a brief news conference on Tuesday at the hospital where the president was being treated, a doctor described Mr. Talabani’s condition as “stable” and said he expected it to improve. On Twitter, Mr. Talabani’s son, Qubad Talabani, who represents the Kurdistan Regional Government in Washington, wrote that his father “is currently stable” and “we hope can begin his recovery soon.”

On Monday, Mr. Talabani met with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to discuss Iraq’s political problems. Afterward, a statement from Mr. Talabani’s office said, the two men stressed the need for calm and transparent dialogue, as well as “working according to the spirit of the Constitution and the national agreements” as the way to solve the country’s ills.

Mr. Maliki has visited Mr. Talabani in the hospital, according to officials.

Mr. Talabani was apparently rushed to the hospital on Monday evening, although no announcement was made until Tuesday morning. He is being treated by specialists at a hospital known as the Baghdad Medical City, and officials said doctors were trying to determine whether Mr. Talabani could be flown abroad for care. If not, foreign medical specialists were expected to fly to Baghdad to join the medical team treating Mr. Talabani.

Christine Hauser contributed reporting from New York.

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Iraq's president suffers stroke

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is shown on January 23, 2010, in Baghdad. A lawmaker says he is in intensive care.NEW: Lawmaker, other official confirm stroke; president's office cites "health emergency"Jalal Talabani, 79, was elected president of Iraq in 2005He has left the country several times for medical issues

(CNN) -- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has suffered a stroke and was rushed to a hospital in Baghdad on Monday night, Iraqi officials said.

Talabani was in intensive care after the stroke, said Kurdish Lawmaker Mahmoud Othman, who said he was headed to the hospital to visit the ailing leader.

"His health condition is not very good," Othman said.

Though Othman and another official confirmed that Talabani had a stroke, the president's office did not immediately confirm this. Talabani's office released a statement saying that he was exhausted.

"Recently, His Excellency President Jalal Talabani spent exhaustive efforts in order to accomplish harmony and stability in the country. Due to fatigue and exhaustion, His Excellency had a health emergency," the president's office said Tuesday.

Also read: More than two dozen dead in second day of Iraq violence

Talabani, 79, was elected president of Iraq in 2005, in the nation's first free elections in more than 50 years.

This is not the fist time he has dealt with serious medical issues. At times, the exact nature of his ailments has been shrouded in secrecy.

In February 2007, he fell ill and was flown to Jordan for treatment, and there were conflicting reports about what prompted his hospitalization.

A hospital source told CNN at the time that doctors performed a catheterization procedure on his heart, but his family and aides denied that.

Talabani's doctor and a spokesman for the president's office said then that he was suffering from exhaustion and lung inflammation, and underwent tests they described as precautionary.

He did not return to Iraq until March.

Two months later, Talabani left for medical tests and to lose weight, his office said. He did not return until June.

In January 2012, he had spinal surgery in Germany.

Read more: Iraqi vice president predicts return to sectarian violence

CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

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