(MENAFN)French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday urged Iraq to disassemble all militias, including the government authorized Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces.

"It is essential that there is a gradual demilitarization, in particular of the Popular Mobilization that established itself in the last few years in Iraq, and that all militias be gradually dismantled." he stated in a joint news conference held with the prime minister of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government.

Macron suggested a constitutionalized dialogue in Iraq between the semi-autonomous KRG and the central government in Baghdad.

Macron told the news conference after a meeting with KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani in Paris, that he thinks that a "constructive dialogue" would lift Baghdad's restrictions on the Kurdish region.

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