August
22, 2007
Baghdad, Iraq ,-- Massoud Barzani, President
of the Kurdistan Region, on Monday in the Iraqi
capital met Bernard Kouchner, France’s recently
appointed foreign minister.
President Barzani welcomed Minister Kouchner as a
long-time friend of the Kurdish and Iraqi people who
had always spoken out against Saddam Hussein’s
genocidal regime.
Kouchner met President Barzani during a three-day
fact-finding mission, the first visit by a French
minister since the liberation of Iraq in 2003.
France’s foreign ministry stated that Minister
Kouchner was in Iraq to convey a message of France’s
solidarity with the Iraqi people and to listen to
the representatives of all the communities.
At a press conference the same day with Iraq’s
President Jalal Talabani, Kouchner said, "It is
essential for France to listen to the Iraqis, to
affirm that the solutions to their problems must be
Iraqi, to listen to all the communities, to preserve
the sovereignty, the integrity and democracy in
Iraq.” |
Kurdistan region President Massoud Barzani (R) and
French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner (L) in a
press conference in Baghdad |
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