French Foreign Minister Le Drian Held Talks with Iraq President Salih

Arab World

September 24th, 7:21am

Asharq Al-Awsat

Salih and Le Drian meet in Baghdad in January 2019. (Iraqi Presidency)

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian held "thorough and confident" talks with Iraq's President Barham Salih late on Thursday, wrote Le Drian on his Twitter page. "Following on from the Baghdad conference of August 28 and the ministerial meeting in New York on September 21, I reaffirmed the support of France for Iraq and for regional dialogue," added Le Drian on Friday, without giving further details. Iraq has become the playground of rivalries between Iran on one side and the United States on the other, with attacks against US forces and assassinations of Iranian and Iraqi paramilitary leaders. Gulf Arab and Iranian officials had met in Baghdad on August 28 on the sidelines of a regional summit that Iraq hoped would encourage its neighbors to talk to each other instead of settling scores on its territory.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3206981/french-foreign-minister-le-drian-held-talks-iraq-president-salih