Northern Ireland First Minister Martin McGuinness is part of a delegation of Northern Ireland politicians flying to Iraq today to share the lessons of the peace process.
The Sinn Féin MP is travelling to Baghdad with DUP junior minister Jeffrey Donaldson and former Assembly members Sean Farren, Billy Hutchinson and Lord Alderdice.
The group will spend two days in the war-torn country in an effort to help Shia and Sunni factions reach an accommodation.
They will be joined at the formative negotiations in the city parliament buildings by politicians from South Africa.
The delegates from Northern Ireland and Africa have already contributed to preliminary discussions with Shia and Sunni representatives in Finland earlier this year.
A spokesman for the initiative said the decision to hold the next phase of the fledgling process in Iraq was significant.
“The symbolic importance of this is moving these politicians from a forest in Finland back to their own country to hold talks in public,” he said.
During the event the Iraq politicians will present the findings of the Finland talks, which are seen as a potential roadmap for future formal talks between the sides.
“This is very early stages,” said the spokesman.
“This is about sensing out what are the issues that should be involved and what are the processes needed to get talks under way.”
PA