Pope Francis Visits Najaf on Second Day of Historic Trip to Iraq, Meets with Ayatollah Sistani

By Staff, Agencies

Pope Francis on Friday arrived in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad for a historic apostolic four-day trip to the Middle Eastern nation.

On the second day of his trip, Pope Francis visited Najaf, one of the holy cities of Shia Muslims.

In Najaf, the pontiff held a closed meeting with influential Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Al-Husseini Al-Sistani, regarded as the spiritual leader of Iraq's Shia Muslims.

Apart from Baghdad and Najaf, the papal visit includes Ur — which is famous among Christians, Jews and Muslims as the birthplace of Prophet Ibrahim [PBUH] — and other Iraqi cities.

The pope became the first-ever pontiff to visit the homeland of Prophet Ibrahim [PBUH]. His visit is described as an act of solidarity with the Christian community and a symbolic outreach to Muslims.

Ahead of the visit, the pope said, in a special address to the Iraqi people, that he would come to their country as a peace messenger to pray for reconciliation after the years of war and terrorism which have plagued Iraq.

Commenting on the pope’s visit, a senior Iranian official remarked on Friday that his trip to Iraq would not have been adequately safe had it not been for the anti-terror operations previously ordered by martyrs Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and Hajj Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who acts as the special adviser to the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, stated in a tweet that if it wasn’t for Soleimani, al-Muhandis and “the martyrs of the fight against terrorism and Daesh [the Arabic acronym for terrorist ‘ISIS’/‘ISIL’ group] in Iraq and the region, the Pope would not have been able to enter Iraq today in safety and peace.”

Martyrs Soleimani and al-Muhandis -who was previously the deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units- were both martyred in a January drone strikes that were carried out near Iraq’s Baghdad International Airport at the direct order of then-US President Donald Trump.