President Barzani will be accompanied by Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, and a number of ministers.
Macron will be in the country to attend the Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership, a summit held in coordination with France that will bring together regional countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.
After years of conflict and foreign influence within its borders, Iraq is hoping to bolster its standing as a regional mediator, a bridge between nations, as well as creating economic and social ties.
Speaking to media delegations in Baghdad on Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said “Iraq has begun to take its historical role, to be one of the pillars of peace in the region.”
Confirming his attendance in a phone call with Kadhimi earlier this month, Macron reiterated France’s commitment to the war against the Islamic State group (ISIS) and the stability and security of Iraq and the region.
At a United Nations Security Council session on Iraq on Wednesday, France’s Deputy Ambassador Nathalie Broadhurst expressed strong support for Iraq, saying the Baghdad summit “will be an opportunity for Iraq to assert itself as a pole of stability in the region. France is absolutely convinced that a prosperous and peaceful Middle East depends on a sovereign and stable Iraq.”
France’s attendance at the summit is part of its policy to expand influence in the Middle East. “France is playing a more central role… becoming a stronger player in the absence or reduced role of the US,” Farhad Alaadin, chairman of the Iraqi Advisory Council, told Rudaw English.
While in Erbil, Macron will also meet with Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani to pay his respects to fallen Peshmerga fighters. He will also visit Mosul.
As a member of the global coalition against ISIS, France played a key role is assisting Iraqi and Peshmerga forces battle the terror group. It has trained at least 10,000 soldiers and provided some 90 million euros in humanitarian and stabilization assistance. Former French President Francois Hollande visited the Peshmerga frontlines in the war against ISIS alongside then Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani during a 2017 trip and he hailed the “remarkable” coordination between French forces and the Peshmerga.
In March, Nechirvan Barzani and Macron met in Paris when the Kurdistan president visited on the invitation of France - it was their fourth meeting. They discussed a range of issues, including the pope’s visit to Iraq, the continued threat of ISIS, and relations between the Iraqi army and Peshmerga.
“The two Presidents reiterated the need to strengthen Iraq and the Kurdistan Region’s ties with France in order to secure peace and security in Iraq and the wider region and to confront the threats of ISIS. Both sides underlined the importance of mutual approach and understanding in order to preserve regional peace and stability,” read a statement from Barzani’s office.
France has been a close friend of Kurds for decades.
Danielle Mitterrand, first lady of France from 1981 to 1995, advocated for Kurds suffering under the regime of Saddam Hussein and was instrumental in campaigning for a UN Security Council-mandated no-fly zone that protected Kurds from the Baath regime, provided humanitarian aid, and allowed the Kurdistan Region to develop its current autonomy. She was affectionately known as the “Mother of Kurds,” and inaugurated the first Kurdish parliament in 1992.
France was one of the first countries to open a consulate in the Kurdish capital of Erbil after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003.
On the 30th anniversary in April of the Security Council resolution establishing the no-fly zone, the French consulate in Erbil called it a “decisive day” in the histories of both Iraq and France because “the great powers and neighbor countries were able to work together and overcome their differences and their prejudices to come to the aid of a people in distress. This has not always been the case in the history of the Kurdish people.”
“It remains, for us French, at the foundation of our friendship with the Kurdish people,” it added.
