ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani will join hundreds of world leaders for Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican on Saturday.

A statement from the Kurdistan Region Presidency on Friday announced that Barzani was heading to Rome to attend the processions set to be held on Saturday morning in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

The Kurdistan Region president will also be representing Iraq at the ceremony, according to the statement.

Some 130 delegations from around the world, including 50 heads of state and 10 royals, are set to attend the ceremony and pay respects to the late head of the Catholic Church.

Among those set to attend are US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Prince William who will be representing King Charles III.

Pope Francis died on Monday morning at the age of 88 after grappling with pneumonia for months.

The late Pope visited the Kurdistan Region in 2021, meeting with Kurdish leaders and expressing his gratitude for the Kurdish authorities' efforts to protect Christians during the war with the Islamic State (ISIS).

During his historic visit to Erbil, he addressed a crowd of 10,000 at the Franso Hariri stadium, celebrating Christians in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq and urging interfaith tolerance.

During an inter-religious prayer event in Erbil on Wednesday, Barzani stated that the Kurdistan Region will forever be “proud” of the late Pope's visit.

Cardinals met on Friday, the fourth such meeting since Pope Francis’s death, to discuss the proceedings following the death of the pontiff.

A new pope is set to be elected in a conclave set to take place around three weeks after the pope died.