title: U.S. willing, if asked, to facilitate talks between Kurds, Baghdad: State Department
text: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States would be willing to help facilitate conversations between Iraqi Kurds and Baghdad to try to ease tensions between the two sides after a Kurdish referendum vote, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday.  The United States, if asked, would be willing to help facilitate a conversation between the two,  State Department spokesman Heather Nauert told a briefing, underscoring that Washington would not engage unless asked. Nauert also said the United States was not in a position to confirm the authenticity of a newly released recording purported to be of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. 