Iraq says it deserves more global support in rebuilding

Iraq's sacrifices fighting the Islamic State group have earned the country greater support in its reconstruction efforts from the international community, Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said Saturday.

Abdul-Mahdi made his comments Saturday morning during a meeting with a visiting U.N. Security Council delegation, the first such visit to Iraq.

The Security Council delegation included, among others, Permanent Representative of Kuwait to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month of June Mansour Al-Otaibi and the U.S. envoy at the United Nations, Jonathan Cohen.

Iraq declared victory over the IS in July 2017, after its military regained control of the country's second-largest city, Mosul, three years after it was seized by extremists bent on building a global caliphate.

The war against IS left many Iraqi cities, towns and villages destroyed and Iraq has been struggling to reconstruct them. International donors pledged USD30 billion to help rebuild Iraq last year, far short of the estimated USD88.2 billion needed.

The delegation also met President Barham Saleh, who told the guests that Iraq wants to contribute to efforts that would strengthen stability adding that Baghdad has a desire to solve international matters "by encouraging dialogue between all sides."