Despite a peak in the pandemic and multiple security threats, the authorities in Baghdad welcome this first visit by a pope.
"A historic displacement because of its strong symbolic charge"
, estimates an Iraqi diplomat, who praises the
"courage"
of the sovereign pontiff to brave the dangers, by venturing for three days in the footsteps of Abraham.
During the 1,450 kilometers of his journey, which he will make by plane or helicopter, Pope Francis will fly over areas where Sunni jihadist cells of Daesh are still hiding.
If he were to see the signs on the road to the Shiite holy city of Nadjaf showing him smiling alongside the great Shiite Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, he could not ignore, just behind, less pleasant posters of the assassinated Iranian general Qassem. Soleimani, architect of Tehran's seizure of Iraq, via certain local militias.
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Pope Francis to visit Iraq from March 5 to 8, 2021
Unhappy with the coming of Francis, the most powerful of them, Kataëb Hezbollah, condemned his visit, while
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