Christian religious leaders in Iraq responded with skepticism after Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Falih al-Zaidi urged Christians living overseas to move back home, saying his government has not tackled the problems that pushed them out in the first place.

Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Nicodemus Daoud Matti Sharaf of Mosul, Kirkuk and the Kurdistan Region welcomed al-Zaidi's overture as recognition that Christians belong in their historic homeland. However, in recent comments syndicated by Syriac Press, Sharaf said the deeper causes of Christian emigration must be tackled first, pointing to the lack of a dedicated electoral register for Christian lawmakers, along with corruption, weak infrastructure and few jobs.

Sharaf's concerns matched findings from Nirij, an investigative outlet that asked whether al-Zaidi's appeal was genuine or aimed at Washington, just ahead of a Washington trip. Nirij's report, relayed by Syriac Press, noted that al-Zaidi sat down with President Donald Trump and signed multiple cooperation agreements, prompting some observers to see the outreach as aimed more at the U.S. than at Iraqi Christians.

Nirij spoke with clergy, politicians, academics and civil society figures, who named property restitution, an end to discrimination and protection from extremism as conditions for large-scale return.

"Calling on Christians to return without addressing what forced them to emigrate will not produce any results," Sharaf was quoted as saying.

Al-Zaidi raised the issue while meeting earlier this month with Chaldean Patriarch Paul III Nona in Baghdad, leader of Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Church, saying his government now treats Christian return as a top priority.

He said returning families could qualify for the government's residential land plot program in which over 1 million families could receive land and a house, the National Catholic Register reported.

Nona said that al-Zaidi is a businessman before he is a politician, and that people will come back once the economy improves and they trust their future. But he warned that those who have left Iraq "don't have trust in this country" and "don't have trust in their neighbors" after what they experienced with the Islamic State invasion over a decade ago.

"I told the prime minister that we have to create a safe environment for people to come back, first to find a good opportunity for them to work and to live, and also to have a trust in their future," Nona told the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

Nona has his own history of displacement. As Archbishop Amel Nona of Mosul, he fled the city with his priests and faithful when the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, invaded in 2014. He has said militants told him personally that Christians had to convert to Islam or be killed, or else leave.

Al-Zaidi urged Christian entrepreneurs and investors from Iraq's diaspora to return and put money into rebuilding the country, particularly in healthcare and education. He called Christians an essential part of Iraqi society and a partner in building the state, a message Nona said would strengthen confidence in the country's future.

Activists interviewed by Nirij said Christians who have taken foreign citizenship are unlikely to return in large numbers soon, and argued the government should prioritize jobs and security for those who never left.

Iraq's Christian population has dropped since 2003, when it stood at an estimated 1.5 million, sinking to fewer than 250,000 people today, after ISIS massacres, forced displacement and damage to churches and homes.

A separate dispute over Church-owned land has added to the skepticism.

The Monastery of Mar Girgis, east of Mosul, has lost about 1,400 dunams in recent decades, according to the Antonian Order of Saint Ormizda of the Chaldeans, or OAOC, a Chaldean Catholic religious order.

An additional 60 dunams of monastery land were recently added to expropriation plans for a housing complex planned for Christian families who return to Mosul, Syriac Press reported. The OAOC said it has no objection to projects that help Christians return, but opposes any development built on Church endowment land.

Fr. Samer Soreshow, the Order's Superior General, told the newspaper Al-Zaman that such housing should not be built on Church property, and that the Order would allocate land itself if property already lost were first restored.

He said the project would also affect part of the monastery's historic cemetery, and that the Order holds documents proving ownership of the disputed land.

Nineveh Province officials reportedly said support for returning Christian families and protection of worship sites remains a government commitment.

The Diwan of Christian, Yezidi and Mandaean Endowments, the Iraqi body overseeing minority religious property, continues pursuing endowment claims through legal channels.

Nona, enthroned as Patriarch at St. Joseph Cathedral in Baghdad on May 29, at age 58, has said the situation in Iraq has improved since ISIS was defeated in 2017 and that no extremist group currently poses a threat, though challenges remain, particularly in the countryside, where many historically Christian villages are located.