ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani and Hungarian President Katalin Novak held a meeting in Erbil late Friday, discussing a range of topics, including the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), according to Barzani’s office.
Barzani received Novak at the Erbil International Airport earlier in the day after she met with Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid in Baghdad. The Hungarian president also visited Nineveh province's Telskuf town, visiting a kindergarten built and a church renovated with the help of the Hungary Helps Agency, also meeting with a number of clergymen.
Barzani and Novak held a meeting in Erbil late Friday. Both leaders talked about Hungary’s relations with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, Erbil-Baghdad relations, ISIS war and the displaced people, according to a statement from Barzani’s office.
They emphasised “the need for continuous support of the global coalition for Iraq and the Kurdistan Region in confronting terror and permanent eradication of Daesh,” read the statement.
Novak thanked the Kurdistan Region for its role in the fight against ISIS and hosting the displaced people, it added.
Novak said in a tweet that she was given a "warm welcome" by President Barzani “with whom we talked about the protection of Christian communities.”
Lara Yousef, mayor of Alqush, told Rudaw that Novak’s visit to the town was “an important and historical one for all the people of the Nineveh Plains, especially Alqush subdistrict.”
“This area has suffered a lot from difficulties and challenges in recent years.”
She said that Hungary has carried out several projects in Alqush, adding that they have requested more to be done.
ISIS controlled swathes of Iraqi land in 2014 but was territorially defeated in late 2017.
