(Front L to R) Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, and French President Emmanuel Macron, flanked by Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit (C-L behind) and other dignitaries arrive at the start of the "Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership" in Sweimeh by the Dead Sea shore in central-west Jordan on Dec. 20, 2022. (Credit: Khalil Mazraawi / AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron called for Iraq to be allowed to choose a path not dictated by foreign powers, in an address Tuesday to a summit aimed at helping to resolve Middle East crises.
"There is a way that is not that of a form of hegemony, imperialism, a model that would be dictated from outside," Macron told the summit at Sweimeh on the shores of the Dead Sea.
Caught for years in a delicate balancing act between its two main allies — the United States and Iran — Iraq only recently arrived at a fragile compromise government after a year of political stalemate.
It has endured nearly two decades of turmoil since the US-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The jihadist Islamic State group seized roughly one-third of the country's territory and declared a "caliphate" in 2014, before its defeat more than three years later.
"There is a way that is not that of a form of hegemony, imperialism, a model that would be dictated from outside," Macron told the summit at Sweimeh on the shores of the Dead Sea.
Caught for years in a delicate balancing act between its two main allies — the United States and Iran — Iraq only recently arrived at a fragile compromise government after a year of political stalemate.
It has endured nearly two decades of turmoil since the US-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The jihadist Islamic State group seized...
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