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Berlin, Baghdad stress need to maintain unity of Iraq

BERLIN, Feb 11 (KUNA) -- The governments of Iraq and Germany underlined on Thursday the necessity of maintaining Iraq's territorial integrity.
During a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Al-Abadi reaffirmed his government's rejection of conducting a referendum on the separation of Kurdistan Region from Iraq.
"My stance pertaining to this issue is clear; the region is part of Iraq, so I reject any referendum on this," he said, urging officials of the region to uncover facts to their citizens that the region can't be developed without the central government in Baghdad.
As for reform plans made by the government, he said "we took some measures aimed to revive economy, provide many opportunities, combat corruption and diversify income so as to avoid repercussions of continued low oil prices which led to a 15-percent deficit in the state." He urged German companies to invest in Iraq, saying the country has about 16 secure governorates.
Concerning migration of Iraqi citizens to Europe, he said obtaining the German loan worth 500 million euros will help create opportunities which will encourage citizens to stay in their country.
Al-Abadi said "we discussed with Merkel required intelligence cooperation to combat the so-called Islamic State." "Actually, we really made victories over IS, but we still need more. A plan will be launched soon to liberate Mosul from IS after the liberation of the cities of Ramadi and Baiji," he stressed.
But he said the liberated areas have many mines, so Iraq will benefit from Germany's experience to remove these mines.
On Syria, he said Iraq supports political solutions for the crisis and so all countries should cooperate to contribute to ending the conflict there.
Meanwhile, Merkel renewed Germany's commitments to backing Iraqi government through reviving economy and combating the IS.
Iraq has big challenges, so Germany decided today to grant Baghdad 500 million euros in loans to help the country develop its infrastructure and encourage Iraqis not to migrate, she said.
On military support, she underscored the urgency of providing constantly Peshmerga forces with training and equipment to counter the IS.
Al-Abadi is on an official visit to Berlin to take part in the Munich Security Conference to be held on Friday, with the participation of more than 30 heads of state and premiers, and 60 foreign and defense ministers. (end) ang.hm