Iraq: Patriarch urges government to protect people before oil wells

Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako

Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako issued an appeal for national reconciliation after a meeting with President Fuad Masum in which he was joined by his auxilary bishops. Stressing the urgency of the current situation, Patriarch Sako said the "unprecedented circumstances" that the country is going through are "the result of all that happened in Iraq from the north to the south for years and until now."

Pointing out the deep causes of the instability and fragility that plague the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, he said this critical phase requires a comprehensive and national collaboration to go "beyond this crisis."

Although he did not mention the word "Kurdistan", the Patriarch made explicit critical references to the way in which the independent referendum of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan was carried out, and the reactions it triggered by the central government. He warned against the danger of creating new conflicts, and called for the government "to protect the people first before the oil wells," implicitly referring to recent military operations carried out by the government of Baghdad.

According to Patriarch Sako, "the right solutions cannot be reached without negotiations and reform of thinking. This method would lead to offering mutual concessions courageously and the cooperation of Iraq's various leaderships."