President Masoud Barzani has been formally invited to Italy and is scheduled to meet Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Wednesday, as part of an official visit aimed at strengthening relations between the Kurdistan Region and the Vatican.

According to information obtained by Kurdistan24, President Barzani will hold talks with Pope Leo XIV and meet senior Italian officials during the visit. Ano Jawhar, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Minister of Transportation and Communications, is accompanying Barzani on the trip.

The visit seeks to further reinforce ties between the Kurdistan Region and the Vatican, building on previous official engagements and invitations extended to Kurdish delegations in recent years. A key objective is to establish direct engagement with the newly elected pope and to highlight the Kurdistan Region’s role as a model of peace and religious coexistence in the Middle East.

Members of the delegation are expected to emphasize Kurdistan’s long-standing tradition of coexistence among different religious communities, including Christians, Muslims, Yazidis, and followers of other faiths.

Another central aim of the visit is to expand international support for the Kurdish people through strengthened diplomatic and moral engagement with global religious and political institutions. The Vatican, which represents more than 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide, gives the meeting significant symbolic and diplomatic weight.

In addition to Vatican meetings, President Barzani is expected to hold political discussions with high-ranking Italian officials. These talks will focus on Kurdistan–Italy relations, broader developments in the Middle East, and recent attacks by armed groups affiliated with the Syrian Arab Army against Kurds in western Kurdistan (Rojava), including reports of mass killings and civilian casualties.