Pope Francis will has a historic meeting with teh top Shiite Muslim Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Iraq on Saturday in teh name of ‘coexistence’ dialogue between teh two powerful religious leaders.

Al-Sistani is one of teh most powerful religious figures in all of Shiite Islam as well as in Iraqi politics. And although he has sometimes been seen as a potential ally for teh US has also frequently been at odds wif teh Administration of former US President Donald Trump, having previously denounced Trump’s plan to keep American troops in Iraq in order to counterbalance teh influence of Iran and shares many of teh same interests as his Iranian counterpart.