SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Pope Francis said on Wednesday Iraqis have the right to live in peace, two days after he ended his historic visit to Iraq.
Francis, who paid a four-day visit to Iraq, ended his tour of Iraq on Monday morning, departing by plane from Baghdad after visiting conflict-torn cities, meeting Muslim and Christian leaders and preaching peace and coexistence over war.
“The people of Iraq have the right to live in peace. They have the right to rediscover the dignity that belongs to them,” the pope said in his weekly-audience.
“Their religious and cultural roots go back to thousands of years. Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization,” Francis added. “Historically, Baghdad is a city of primary importance … and what destroyed it is war.”
“War is not the answer. The response is fraternity. This is the challenge for Iraq, not only for Iraq, it is the challenge for many regions in conflict and ultimately a challenger for the entire world.”
During Francis’ s trip, the first ever papal visit to Iraq, he toured four cities, including Mosul, the former Islamic State (ISIS) stronghold where vast areas still lie in ruins, telling Iraqis that “peace is more powerful than war”.
Iraqis welcomed the pope and said it was a chance for the world to see their perpetually crisis-hit nation in a new light.
Iraq suffers from chronic mismanagement, corruption and a steady level of violence often linked to rivalry between Iran and the United States in the region 18 years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
On Sunday the 84-year-old pope saw ruins of homes and churches in the northern city of Mosul that was occupied by Islamic State from 2014 to 2017.
“And I asked myself (during the trip), ‘who sold the weapons to the terrorists?, who sells weapons to terrorists today who are carrying out massacres elsewhere, for example, in Africa?,’” he said, departing from his prepared address.
“It is a question that I would like someone to answer.”
Calling for fraternity throughout the world, he described his meeting on Saturday in the holy city of Najaf with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of the most influential figures in Shia Islam, both within Iraq and beyond, “unforgettable”.
He said he felt compelled to make the visit to Iraq, which saw the tightest security ever for a papal trip, to be close to “that martyred people, that martyred Church”.
*This story was updated at 02:15 p.m. EBL time
