Visits

At the invitation of Mr Jalal Talabani, President of Iraq, the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs did an official visit to Baghdad. This is a project he had been thinking about since taking up office.

M. Bernard Kouchner was in Iraq to convey a messsage of France’s solidarity with the Iraqi people and to listen to the representatives of all the communities, without exception.

He arrived in Baghdad on 19 August 2007, the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attack which cost the lives of Sergio Vieira de Mello, special representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, and around 20 United Nations civil servants. Mr de Mello was a personal friend of M. Kouchner, as were Nadia Younès, Fiona Watson and Jean-Sélim Kanaan, members of his team in Kosovo.

On this occasion, he also expressed France’s gratitude to [French] embassy staff who are serving in Baghdad with courage and skill in the conditions you know about.

Official statements

  Statements made by M. Bernard Kouchner, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, during his joint press briefing with Mr Hoshyar Al-Zebari, iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs (Baghdad, 19 August 2007)

"I’ve come, on behalf of the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Prime Minister, M. François Fillon, to listen to you. To try and understand what for some people appears to be [moving in] a positive direction, and which, viewed from outside seems to us a dreadful situation, one which seems to keep on getting worse. And I ask nothing more than to be convinced."

  Interview given by M. Bernard Kouchner to the press - excerpts - (Baghdad, 21 August 2007)

I think Iraq is in the middle of a region that is very important to the rest of the world, a region in crisis, with its internal problems, with its communities, problems between religions, economic problems, emergence from dictatorship, foreign intervention and very important neighbours: Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey.