Emmanuel Macron is making his first visit to Iraq on Wednesday 2 September, with the intention of helping this country to assert
“its sovereignty”
away from the sharp tensions between its two allies, Washington and Tehran.
Coming from Beirut, the head of state will spend only a few hours in Baghdad, where he will be received by the main officials of the country.
He will be the first foreign head of state to visit Iraq since the appointment in May of a new prime minister, Moustafa al-Kazimi.
Read also: In Lebanon, Emmanuel Macron tears off a roadmap for the new government
For security reasons, the French presidency only confirmed this visit at the last minute, which had been announced by Iraqi officials and media.
By officializing it Monday evening in Beirut, Emmanuel Macron specified that he would launch in Baghdad,
"in connection with the United Nations, an initiative to support a process of sovereignty"
.
This
"fight for the sovereignty of Iraq is essential"
to allow
"this people and this country which have suffered so much"
to
"not give in to the fate of domination by regional powers and by Islamist terrorism"
, he explained in Paris on Friday.
“There are leaders and a people who are aware of this and who want to take their destiny into their own hands.
France's role is to help them do this, ”
he added.
"By your side"
This country has been caught for years between its two most influential partners, Washington and Tehran, a position that has become even more difficult to hold from 2018 with the campaign of
"maximum pressure"
exerted by the United States of Donald Trump against Iran.
Iraq, which saw the emergence of a powerful popular protest movement last year, is also facing difficult economic times.
The second largest producer of OPEC, it has been severely affected by the fall in oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic has further aggravated the difficulties.
In Baghdad, Emmanuel Macron is expected to meet with Prime Minister Kazimi but also with President Barham Saleh, before a lunch shared with other officials.
His message should echo that of his head of diplomacy, Jean-Yves Le Drian, who stressed, during a visit in July, the need for Iraq to
"dissociate itself from the tensions of its neighborhood"
.
On August 27, the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, also held talks in Baghdad and Erbil, capital of the Kurdish region (north), recalling in particular the importance of continuing the fight against the jihadist group Islamic State (EI ).
“We are convinced that the fight against Daesh (Arabic acronym for ISIS) is not over.
We are by your side, ”
she said.
"Pluralist" Iraq
In January, Emmanuel Macron called for
"de-escalation"
after the death of a powerful Iranian general, Qassem Soleïmani, and his Iraqi lieutenant in an American drone strike in Baghdad.
Tehran responded with strikes against US troops in western Iraq.
The visit also comes as US President Donald Trump on August 21 reaffirmed his desire to withdraw US troops from Iraq, but without specifying a timetable.
Some 5,000 American soldiers and diplomats are still deployed there.
The big Iranian neighbor has on Iraqi soil the crucial support of Hachd al-Chaabi, a coalition of paramilitaries integrated into the State and which demands in Parliament the expulsion of American troops.
Unlike most foreign officials visiting Iraq, Emmanuel Macron will not travel to Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, and hopes to meet Kurdish leaders in Baghdad, according to Iraqi sources.
Asked in Beirut about the presence of presumed French jihadists imprisoned in Iraq, Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed that those who
"make the free choice to go and fight in external theaters and are guilty of terrorist acts in a sovereign state"
have a vocation to
“To be prosecuted in this State”
.
Of the 150 French people arrested for belonging to the Islamic State (IS) group, almost all are held in the camps and summary prisons of the Kurds in northeastern Syria.
And 11 French people are detained in Iraq, where they were sentenced to death.
