Shafaq News/ The President of Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, appraised the values of tolerance, peace, and forgiveness that Pope Francis called for in his recent visit, calling for inspiring them to address the disputes between Kurdistan and Iraq. 

"We regard the Pope's visit to Iraq and Kurdistan, who, despite the poor conditions, insisted on paying this visit. We offer his Holiness our profound gratitude."

He added, "his holiness commend to the tolerance and coexistence in our region is a pride for us."

Barzani thanked the "religious and ethnic communities that full-heartedly participated in the reception ceremonies, especially the dignitaries, Muslim, and other religious clerics, who demonstrated a beautiful picture of the civilization of Kurdistan people."

"The cure of the war and terrorism wounds in Iraq, as the Pope said in Erbil's mass, is solely tolerance and forgiveness. This is exactly what God asks his believers. Our God's willing is to have a pure heart, free of disunion, deception, the desire of retribution."

"We in the Kurdistan Region support his Holiness’s message of peace, tolerance, acceptance of others, eradication of hatred and rancor, militancy, terrorism, and retribution. These principles and values ​​are the main foundations of Kurdistan society, and we preserve them as we always do. We hope that in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, we in the spirit of these values ​​resolve disputes between us".

 Barzani concluded his statement by saying, "I thank the cooperation and coordination between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government and all relevant parties that made this historic visit take place at a high level of protocol, organizational, and security."