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French President Emmanuel Macron visited Baghdad today on his first official visit to Iraq. He is the first head of state to visit Iraq since Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi assumed the presidency of the country’s government in May, with the aim of helping this country assert its “sovereignty” at a time when it is in the middle of Tension between two allies: Washington and Tehran.
Macron said during a press conference on Tuesday, at the end of his second visit to Lebanon in less than a month, “I assure you that I will be in Iraq tomorrow morning to launch, in cooperation with the United Nations, an initiative to support the sovereignty process “in it.
During a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart Barham Salih in Baghdad, the French president affirmed his support for Iraq to combat the sleeper cells of the Islamic State and oppose foreign interference. He said: “Iraq has gone through a challenging period for several years, with war and terrorism.” He added: “You must lead a transition period (…) France will be by your side so that the international community can support you.”
He added that they also discussed military cooperation against “ISIS” and French support for a metro project in Baghdad. He stated that any military cooperation with Iraq must respect its sovereignty, adding that France supports Al-Kazemi’s efforts to consolidate Iraqi sovereignty, as well as “reconcile the conditions” of all armed forces, referring to the Shiite armed factions, the most of whom support Iran.
There were not many details about the “sovereignty” initiative, which was talked about a lot, including statements by Iraqi officials awaiting the announcement of new financial or military aid.
For his part, President Saleh thanked Macron for the support provided by France in the fight against the “Islamic State”, expressing his hope that the president will pay a longer visit to Iraq next year.
In turn, Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi expressed, during a joint press conference with the French president, his hope that France, and Europe as a whole, would help “restore stability” in the region, saying: “We do not want to be a battlefield, but a region of stability and moderation,” adding that France and Iraq will sign agreements in the field of energy in the future, in addition to deepening military cooperation between the two countries.
‘Basic sovereignty’
After the US-led invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, Iraq, to which France was not a party, suffered sectarian conflicts that culminated in Islamic State control of large areas of the country. With the support of the US-led international coalition, in which France participates, Iraqi forces managed to defeat ISIS in late 2017.
Iraq has for years been caught between its two most influential partners, Washington and Tehran, and has become an increasingly difficult position since 2018, with the United States led by Donald Trump launching a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. France, along with the European countries that signed the nuclear agreement in 2015, supports the maintenance of the agreement from which Washington withdrew, and although it did not participate in the international coalition that overthrew Saddam Hussein’s regime, it did join the international coalition led by United States that began in 2014 to combat ISIS.
In recent months, France has doubled down on its signals of support for Iraq through a visit by its Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, in July, during which he highlighted “the importance of the flute in the self of women. surrounding tensions “. On August 27, the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, visited Baghdad and Erbil, highlighting the need to continue fighting against ISIS.
Before the French president went to make his last visit to Beirut, he said during a meeting with journalists that “the battle for the sovereignty of Iraq is fundamental” to allow “this people and this country, which has suffered a lot”, ” is not subject to the inevitability of the control and terrorism of regional powers. “
And unlike most foreign officials, the French president will not stop in Erbil, the capital of the North Kurdistan autonomous region, but will meet Kurdish officials, including the region’s president, Nechirvan Barzani, in Baghdad.
East looking towards France
Earlier this year, after the jihadists were defeated on the ground and the Covid-19 epidemic spread, the last contingent of French forces that were present in Iraq as part of the international coalition withdrew. France seeks to expand its economic relations with Iraq, which, according to Transparency International, is among the twenty most corrupt countries in the world.
Macron is likely to discuss during his visit the fate of 11 French citizens sentenced to death by the Iraqi judiciary last year for joining extremist organizations in Iraq.
On the other hand, an Iraqi official said that Macron’s visit on “Iraqi sovereignty” also constitutes an indirect message to Turkey, as the latter carried out a military air and ground operation in which it attacked Kurdish fighters in the north. Iraq in July, infuriating Baghdad, which condemned the violation of its territory.
Tension is currently more intense between France and Turkey, in the context of the conflict in Libya, where the two countries are accused of supporting two parties in conflict, and disputes in the eastern Mediterranean over gas exploration.
Macron’s swift visit to Baghdad comes after intense talks in Beirut, the second since the August 4 massive explosion in the Beirut port that killed more than 180 people.
“Macron is definitely trying to push for a Middle East that looks to France,” Karim Bitar, a political science professor who works between Paris and Beirut, told AFP. He added that the French president was focusing on Lebanon and Iraq, both of which have ties to Iran and Saudi Arabia, because he believed Paris could play the role of mediator if regional tensions escalated.
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