During his two-day trip to Iraq, France’s Jean-Yves Le Drian visited holy shrine of Imam Ali (A.S) and also met with Ayatollah Mohammad Said al-Hakim, one of Iraq’s top four Shiite clerics in Najaf on Tuesday, the first visit to the holy city by a French foreign minister.

“France is delighted by the spirit of moderation shown by the Shia clerics of Najaf,” Le Drian said at a joint press conference with Mohamed Said al-Hakim, another of the city’s prominent Shia clerics.
The French foreign minister also commended an earlier fatwa (religious ruling) issued by Ayatollah al-Sistani that served to legitimize the fight against the Daesh terrorist group, which overran much of Iraq in mid-2014.
Le Drian arrived in Iraq earlier Monday. He met with several Iraqi political figures, including Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi and Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, AA reported.
France would issue a new one-billion-euro loan over the next four years to help Iraq rebuild after the grueling fight against the Islamic State group, he said, rfi told.
Talks reportedly focused on the ongoing fight against Daesh and France’s role in the reconstruction of post-Daesh Iraq.

Source: en.shafaqna.com