France’s president and French executives are wooing Iraq’s vice president this week, seeking oil and other business contracts and to renew lucrative links to Baghdad.Adel Abdul-Mahdi was to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Wednesday. Both Sarkozy and Kouchner have sought in recent months to bury past tensions with Iraq over French opposition to the U.S.-led invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein.
Iraq’s substantial oil reserves, arms market and billions of dollars worth of reconstruction contracts are a key reason why. France was one of Iraq’s key trading partners under Saddam.
Abdul-Mahdi met the CEO of French oil giant Total SA, Christophe de Margerie, on Tuesday. The two men discussed two potential oil exploration contracts in Iraq, according to an Iraqi Embassy official. The official was not authorized to be publicly named according to embassy protocol.
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