French President Emmanuel Macron is making a two-day visit to Iraq in what officials say is a show of support for the country as it struggles to maintain stability and to rebuild after years of war, reports The National.
Mr Macron will begin his visit on Saturday by attending the Baghdad Conference for Co-operation and Partnership, a summit that brings together several foreign leaders in an attempt to ease tension in the region and to win much-needed support for Iraq.
France's president will also meet his Iraqi counterpart Barham Salih, Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi and Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al Halbousi, an official at the French embassy in Baghdad said.
The aim of the visit is to “support Iraq and Iraqi people", the official said. "This period is very important for Iraq as we are approaching the elections in October.”
Mr Macron “wants to express his support for Iraq and the political process and democracy”.
The parliamentary election on October 10th was brought forward from May next year, one of the key demands of pro-reform protests that engulfed the country in late 2019.
Later on Saturday, Mr Macron will visit the shrine of the eighth-century imam Mousa Al Kadhim in Baghdad, which is revered by Shiites, before heading north to meet officials in the self-ruled Kurdish region.
On Sunday, he will visit the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the crown jewel in ISIS's self-proclaimed state after the extremist group's onslaught in Syria and Iraq in mid-2014.
The city was recaptured in late 2017 by the US-backed Iraqi security forces, but at heavy cost. ISIS rule and the battle to retake Mosul left large parts of the city and surrounding areas in ruins. A lack of funds, political wrangling and corruption have delayed reconstruction efforts.
Mr Macron will talk to students of Mosul University and visit the Old City as well as Mosul’s main landmarks, Al Nuri Mosque and Al Saa’a Church.