4,000 Iraqis were returned to their homeland from the Lithuanian-Belarusian border. This was stated by Fuad Hussein, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq, during a press conference with his Lithuanian counterpart Gabrielius Landsbergis in Baghdad, the Iraqi news agency INA reports. According to him, this issue received a huge attention in the media and significant humanitarian coverage.
«In cooperation with various countries in the European Union and with Lithuania, we were able to work in this field and were able to return 4 thousand Iraqis who were trapped on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border, and they were returned through 10 flights that departed from Baghdad,» he told.
«There are some Iraqis still in Lithuania and we are waiting for their decision to return voluntarily to Baghdad,» the Minister added.
He also confirmed the strengthening of bilateral relations with Lithuania, and Landsbergis stressed that the Iraqi government was the first to stop flights to Belarus.
«Our discussions with the Lithuanian Foreign Minister are frank and clear, and this is the fourth time we meet with him,» Hussein noted.
According to him, they talked about bilateral relations between the countries, and considered the migration issue.
Hussein thanked Lithuania’s Foreign Minister for the great role in the European and EU framework to help Iraq in various fields and there was a great effort to remove Iraq from the list of high-risk countries on terrorist financing and money laundering. Landsbergis stated that cooperation would be established between Iraq and Lithuania to stop migration.
«The EU considers Iraq an excellent model for dealing with confidence,» he added.
«I will discuss in Baghdad a lot of issues and cooperation between the two countries in the future,» the head of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Source: Reform.by
