SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Friday hoped the historic visit of Pope Francis to Iraq will strengthen “peaceful coexistence” in the country.
Francis is visiting Iraq including the Kurdistan Region for a four-day trip. He left Rome for Baghdad on Friday morning and is expected to arrive around 2 p.m.
“I hope that the historic visit of Pope Francis to Iraq will strengthen peaceful coexistence and harmony among different religions and ethnicities of the country and will result in a better future for all,” Barzani said in a tweet.
“The people of Kurdistan and I are eager to receive His Holiness in Erbil,” he added.
The 84-year-old will visit four cities, including the former Islamic State (ISIS) stronghold of Mosul, where churches and other buildings still bear the scars of conflict.
Francis will also visit Ur, birthplace of the prophet Abraham who is revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews, and meet Iraq’s top Shia Muslim cleric, 90-year-old Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
The Iraqi government has already beefed up security in the country, with deploying thousands of additional security personnel to protect the pope during his visit.
A senior security official who has been briefed on the security plan told Reuters that forces involved had been trained to deal with worst-case scenarios, from street battles to bombings and rocket attacks.
Interior ministry special forces and the army will set up a security cordon around the pope wherever he goes, while the air force will operate drones around the clock to monitor the routes he will take, Reuters reported.
Undercover intelligence and national security officers will also be deployed at gatherings attended by the pope, said the source, who declined to be named while discussing security matters.
