The KRG signed an agreement with the Italian Society for International Organization Rome

Minister Falah Mustafa has led a delegation of the department of foreign relations in Italy last week where he met with the deputy minister of foreign affairs of Italy. He has visited the Parliament and the minister Mustafa has signed an agreement with the Italian Society for International Organization .
The delegation was composed by the High Representative of the Kurdistan regional government in Italy Mrs. Rezan Kader, by the assistant chief of the DFR Siham Jabali, the adviser in the DFR Saleem Ibrahim, as well as by the directors of the DFR Hoshang Mohamed, Tawfiq Rahman and Omer Rashid.

During the four day visit, the delegation met the deputy foreign minister Lapo Pistelli. The Minister Mustafa thanked DeputyMinister Pistelli for the cooperation of the Ministry of foreign affairs and he added: 'The KRG attaches great importance to relations with Italy and i would also like to thank the Representative Office in Italy and the Italian Consulate in Erbil for the role they play in strengthening our mutual relations'. The Deputy Minister Pistelli welcomed the delegation and said to be satisfied with the level of development in bilateral relations, highlighting the increase in the number of Italian companies that operate in Kurdistan. Both parties have discussed developments in the field of Kurdish and Iraqi politics, and regional security. The delegation also met with a number of other senior officials at the Ministry of foreign affairs.
In the course of the visit, the minister Mustafa and the former foreign minister of Italy Franco Frattini have signed a memorandum of understanding between the DFR and the Italian Society for international organization (SIOI) that the President Frattini now directs. The MOU has been completed and signed after the prime minister Nechirvan Barzani had approved a proposal at the beginning of this year. During his visit to the SIOI, minister Mustafa spoke at a conference in which was attended by over 150 diplomats, professors, university teachers, researchers and journalists. He informed the public of the geopolitical influence of Kurdistan, the history of the Kurdish people, of the tragedies that they overcame, the subsequent developments to the insurrection of 1991 and the future of the region.

In the course of the visit to Italy, the delegation visited the Italian Parliament, where it was received by the Deputy President of the Senate, Valeria Fedeli. The Minister Mustafa has informed the Deputy President for the coming parliamentary Iraqi elections provided for April 2014 and spoke of how both Kurdistan and Iraq can benefit from Italy, given its history and his experience in the field of democracy. The Vice President Fedeli has shown its support in an attempt to bring further international recognition of the genocide perpetrated by the former Ba'athist regime against the Kurdish people.

The delegation also visited the University of Perugia, where the minister Mustafa has held a conference and met with various officials of the University, as well as the officials of the local government.
The delegation met various diplomats by the international community as well as the members of the business community in Italy. On the last day of the visit the delegation went to the Holy See in the Vatican where they met the Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio. The Minister Mustafa has outlined the culture of Kurdistan of compassion and co-existence and has spoken of the Christian community in the region and the Syrian crisis, which had given an attendance of around 250,000 refugees in the Region.