Al-Itihad: Talibani calls on the Pope to visit Iraq

The al-Itihad ( federation ) paper, mouthpiece of the Kurdstani National Federation party, said yesterday that the chairman of the Party Jalal Talibani called during a visit to the Vatican Pope John Paul II to visit Iraq and pray at the mass graves found there.

The paper explained that the invitation came during the meeting between the Vatican's foreign minister Jan Loius Toran with the chairman of the Kurdistani national federation party Jalal Talibani who is currently visiting Italy in the framework of a delegation representing the transitional governing council to take part in an international conference on Iraq organized by International Socialist.

The paper continued that "Talibani invited his holiness Pope John Paul II to visit Iraq's Kurdistan in order to pray at the mass graves" discovered in Iraq.

The paper indicated that Talibani briefed the Pope with the "current conditions in Iraq and Kurdistan and its current democratic experience and the possibility of introducing this experience in all Iraq."