ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani has departed to the Vatican and is set to meet with Pope Leo XIV.
The visit aims at “further developing and advancing relations,” Nuri Osman, head of President Nechirvan Barzani’s office, told Rudaw on Sunday.
He also noted that Barzani will meet Italian leaders during the visit.
Meanwhile, a statement from the Kurdistan Region Presidency noted that Barzani has already departed for Rome on an “official two-day visit.”
“President Nechirvan Barzani will meet with His Holiness the Pope and the president of Italy as well as a number of senior Italian government and Vatican state officials,” the statement added.
In the meetings, the “relations between Iraq and the Kurdistan Region with Italy and the Vatican City State,” in addition to the “political and security status of Iraq and the region,” along with “other topics of mutual interest,” will be discussed, according to the statement.
On Friday, President Barzani received Miroslaw Wachowski, the Vatican’s new Apostolic Nuncio to Iraq. Barzani reiterated the Kurdistan Region’s support for his mission and stressed the Region’s commitment to coexistence and religious diversity.
Iraq’s Christian population has sharply declined over the past two decades. Following the US-led invasion in 2003, sectarian violence forced many Christians to flee, while attacks by the Islamic State in 2014 devastated minority communities, particularly in northern Iraq.