UN chief on ‘solidarity’ visit to Iraq
Baghdad, Iraq (AFP):
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was in Iraq Wednesday for talks with senior officials in a show of “solidarity” after a drawn-out political crisis.
The UN chief’s visit, his first to Iraq in six years, comes as the war-torn country prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of the toppling of longtime dictator Saddam Hussein in a US-led invasion in 2003. The invasion followed by years of occupation, resistance and devastation, left the country in ruins. The invasion had been justified under the pretext of dismantling Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction,” which could never be discovered by UN inspectors.
Guterres said he wanted to demonstrate “solidarity with the people and the democratic institutions of Iraq and a solidarity that means that the United Nations is totally committed to support the consolidation of the institutions in this country”.
He said he also wanted to express his “confidence that Iraqis will be able to overcome the difficulties and challenges they still face through an open and inclusive dialogue”.
Guterres on Thursday will visit a camp for displaced people in the north of the country, before heading to Kurdistan regional capital Arbil for talks with Kurdish officials.
He will then travel on to Qatar, where he will attend the summit of the Least Developed Countries.