French FM makes first visit to Iraq
Fouad Hussein and Jean-Noel Barrot (AP)
Baghdad:
France
's foreign minister
Jean-Noel Barrot
will meet officials in Baghdad on Wednesday as part of a regional tour to push for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The French foreign ministry said in a statement that Barrot, who will also visit Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, is on a tour to help "prepare for the international conference for the implementation of the two-state solution" that Paris will co-organise in June with Riyadh.
French President
Emmanuel Macron
said earlier this month that France planned to recognise a Palestinian state, possibly as early as June.
He said he hoped it would "trigger a series of other recognitions", including of Israel.
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Iraq has long recognised a Palestinian state, but has never recognised Israel and does not have formal relations with it.
For decades, the formal recognition of a Palestinian state has been seen as the endgame of a peace process between Palestinians and Israel.
On his first trip to Iraq, Barrot will meet his counterpart
Fuad Hussein
and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Baghdad before heading to the northern autonomous Kurdistan region to meet with its leaders.
The visit to Baghdad will allow France to prepare for the third version of the
Baghdad Conference
on regional stability, which Paris has been co-organising with Baghdad since 2021.
It also aims to confirm "France's commitment to the stability of Iraq and its role" in maintaining regional balance.
It will also allow "France to reaffirm its commitment to continue the fight against" the Islamic State group, especially "in a context of transition in neighbouring Syria", and Washington's decision to halve the number of its troops in Syria.
France has deployed troops in Iraq as part of the US-led international coalition set up to fight IS, which was defeated in Iraq in 2017 although some of its jihadist cells remain active.
Baghdad is now seeking to end the coalition's mission and replace it with bilateral military partnerships with members of the coalition, saying its own forces can lead the fight against the weakened jihadists.
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