Athens, 21 November 2023

1st Vice-President of Parliament meets with Ambassador of Republic of Iraq

The 1st Vice-President of the Parliament Ioannis Plakiotakis met today with the Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq to Athens Mouayed Saleh. 

At the centre of meeting was the turbulent situation in the Gaza Strip, as well as the two countries' bilateral relations, with a focus on issues of commecrial exchanges and the policies of migration and asylum.

During the meeting, Mr Plakiotakis, after making a reference to the long-standing constructive relationship of the two countries, unequivocally condemned the terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel, separating it from the beleaguered Palestinian people and expressing his concern about the development that threaten to destabilise the wider region of the Middle East. Moreover, he emphasised the importance of everyone contributing to resolve the problem, to address the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip through the establishment of a safe maritime corridor and to resolve the Palestinian issue through the two-state solution, based on the relevant UN resolutions and International Law. 

Then, Mr Plakiotakis made extensive reference to Greece's wish to expand trade relations between the two countries and to deepen parliamentary diplomacy.

For his part, Mr Saleh agreed with the Greek proposal to provide humanitarian relief for the Palestinian civilians through a maritime corridor.

At the level of bilateral relations between Greece and Iraq, he expressed a keen interest to expand commercial exchanges, emphasising the sectors of construction materials and pharmaceuticals, and stressing the need to create a framework that will facilitate business exchanges, through modifications in the visa policy. 

Mr Saleh then reaffirmed Iraq's intention to closely cooperate with the EU for the best management of migrant flows toward Europe and Mr Plakiotakis stressed the need for cooperation between all involved parties, for a Europen asylym policy by the EU. 

Back