New Iraq stamps to mark Pope's meeting with Sistani

Iraq will issue new stamps to mark the Pope's visit to the country and his meeting with Shia Cleric Ali Al-Sistani, the Ministry of Communications announced yesterday.

Iraq stamp with Pope sistani [Iraqi News Agency]

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Iraq stamp with Pope sistani [Iraqi News Agency]

The spokesman for the Ministry of Communications, Raad Al-Mashhadani, said in a statement that

"The General Company for Post and Savings issued a postage stamp for the visit of His Holiness Pope Francis to Iraq, and his meeting with the Religious Authority, His Eminence, Sayyid Ali Al-Sistani, and another stamp for his visit to the city of Ur," the ministry's spokesperson Raad Al-Mashhadani said.

The ministry has done this because of "what this visit embodied in highlighting the concepts of peaceful coexistence and love between religions inside and outside Iraq," he added.

The Pope visited Iraq in early March in the first such trip to the country. The pontiff travelled from Baghdad to Najaf; from the plains of Ur, where Prophet Abraham is said to have been born, to the ruined city of Mosul where Daesh had its stronghold only two years ago and threatened to behead the head of the Catholic Church, before alighting in Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan.

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