UN confident Iraqis will overcome difficulties, challenges: Secretary-general

BAGHDAD (AA) – The UN is confident that Iraq and its people will overcome all challenges, its chief Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday.

The UN secretary-general arrived in Iraq on Tuesday, his first visit to the country in six years.

At a joint news conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, Guterres said the UN remains confident that “Iraqis will be able to overcome the difficulties and challenges they still face,” the Iraqi News Agency reported.

The UN chief said he would visit internally displaced people in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region if the opportunity arises, the report said.

Guterres said he earlier met the Iraqi community in Syria to review efforts for their return home, and welcomed the Iraqi government’s steps on the issue.

Hussein, for his part, hailed Iraq’s “strong” ties with the UN.

“Relations between Iraq and the UNAMI (UN Assistance Mission for Iraq) are strong, and as a result, so are relations between Iraq and the UN,” he said.

Hussein lauded the UN chief “for his support for Iraq at various stages, whether it was the Iraqi political process or the democratic process,” the report added.

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat in Ankara