France is increasingly flexing its diplomatic muscles in Iraq as French President Emmanuel Macron hosted the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Prime Minister Masrour Barzani last Thursday, only weeks after meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani.
During the meeting, Macron expressed support for Iraq and the KRG in the face of external and domestic security threats, while Barzani lauded Paris as an “ally with a common vision.” Both leaders discussed investments and economic diversification in sectors like agriculture and pledged to further strengthen bilateral cooperation.
France has maneuvered to rival Washington as Baghdad’s primary Western partner and to counterbalance China’s financial and geopolitical influence in the country….…After years of US financial neglect for Iraq’s reconstruction, Beijing has become a dominant economic actor in the country as Baghdad’s largest trading partner, accounting for 44% of Iraq’s oil exports in 2021, and has allocated $10.5 billion for projects including a heavy oil power plant that year.
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/02/iraq-macron-seeks-bigger-sphere-influence-france
Following the 2019 “oil for construction” deal, these revenues have helped China contribute to wider infrastructure projects in Iraq — an important country to its Belt and Road Initiative.
Just weeks before Macron hosted Barzani, Beijing also pledged nearly $10 billion in infrastructure projects in the Kurdistan Region, involving sectors like railway networks, power, roads and dams.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Fire Lily 