Sherwan Dubardani, a Kurdish lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament from Mosul, told Rudaw that Sudani will visit the city “for the purpose of reopening the al-Nuri Mosque.”
The mosque and its iconic minaret - known as al-Hadba - were beloved features in Mosul’s skyline for 850 years. The leaning minaret appears on Iraq’s 10,000 dinar banknote. The site was destroyed by ISIS militants in 2017 as Iraqi troops gained ground during the grueling battle to retake the city from the jihadists.
The United Nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization (UNESCO) led the effort to rebuild the landmark after the war ended. In April 2018, UNESCO, the UAE, and Iraq signed an agreement to rebuild the mosque complex and the minaret. The UAE contributed $50.4 million to the reconstruction.
A UAE delegation and Kurdistan Region Interior Minister Reber Ahmed are also set to attend the reopening ceremony, according to Dubardani.
The minaret was built in 1172 by the ruler Nur al-Din Zengi. It was given the name al-Hadba, meaning the hunchback, in the 14th century when it began to noticeably lean.
The old city of Mosul - Iraq’s second-largest - was the last stronghold for ISIS in Iraq and bore the brunt of fierce clashes that caused widespread destruction of its buildings.
The mosque was famously used by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on July 4, 2014, when he announced his caliphate from the mosque’s pulpit.
ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraqi territory in a brazen offensive in 2014, but it was declared territorially defeated in 2017 when its so-called caliphate fell to Iraqi and Kurdish fighters, supported by a US-led international coalition, who clawed back lands from the jihadists.
