Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi visited Mar Yousef (St. Joseph) Chaldean Cathedral in Baghdad's al-Mansour district on Tuesday, and called on Iraqi Christian businessmen to return home and contribute to the country's economy.

During a meeting with Patriarch Mar Polis III Nona, the prime minister reaffirmed his government's commitment to strengthening Iraq's national fabric and promoting coexistence among its communities.

Read more: Christians of Iraq: Where did they go?

Iraq’s Christian population has fallen sharply over the past two decades, declining from about 1.5 million before the 2003 US-led invasion to between 150,000 and 250,000 today, according to Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, former Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church. The decline accelerated after ISIS seized large parts of northern Iraq in 2014, displacing hundreds of thousands of Christians and other minorities, many of whom fled to the Kurdistan Region, particularly Erbil and Duhok.