Syria FM’s Iraq visit focuses on security

Syria’s interim foreign minister said in Baghdad on Friday his government was ready to “reinforce cooperation” with Iraq in the fight against remnants of ISIS.

Asaad al-Shaibani’s visit to Syria’s neighbour coincided with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani announcing that security forces had killed a senior IS leader.

It was also al-Shaibani’s first visit to Iraq since his opposition group toppled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in December.

Relations between neighbors Syria and Iraq have become more complicated since the ouster of al-Assad, who was a close ally of the government in Baghdad.

Iraq is home to a Shia Muslim majority, and while it is a strategic partner of the United States, it is also a key ally of Iran, once a main backer of al-Assad’s rule.

While al-Assad’s key support came from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iraqi armed groups were also engaged in defending his rule during the 13-year civil war sparked by his crackdown on democracy protests.

The opposition group that ended up ousting al-Assad in December are Sunni Muslim, and interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has sought to present a more moderate image since coming to power, once fought with al-Qaeda in Iraq against US forces and their allies.

In Baghdad on Friday, al-Shaibani met Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, the official INA news agency reported.

“Security is a shared responsibility,” Shaibani told a joint news conference with Hussein.

“We are ready to reinforce cooperation with Iraq in the fight against Daesh (an Arabic acronym for ISIS) along the whole length of the border. Terrorism knows no borders.”

Alawite killings

Sudani on Friday posted on X that Abdullah Makki Muslih al-Rufayi, the ISIS leader killed by Iraqi security forces, “was considered one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world.”

He said the extremist, who was targeted by US sanctions in 2023, was ISIS’s so-called governor of the group’s Syrian and Iraqi provinces.

Sudani did not say when al-Rufayi was killed, but applauded the operation by Iraqi intelligence that was carried out in cooperation with the US-led anti-extremists coalition in Iraq.

At the joint news conference with al-Shaibani, Hussein said Iraq hoped there would be “tangible results” from an investigation launched by Syria’s new authorities into mass killings of civilians by the security forces that largely targeted the Alawite minority.

“We discussed what happened to the Alawite community... and we expressed our concern,” he said, adding that he hoped a commission of inquiry formed by Damascus “would achieve tangible results that establish civil peace in Syria.”

Baghdad condemned the massacre of at least 1,383 civilians in coastal Syria earlier this month by security forces and allied groups.

The vast majority of the civilians killed were Alawites, members of Assad’s sect, itself an offshoot of Shia Islam.

Baghdad said earlier this week it was investigating an attack on Syrian workers in Iraq after a newly formed group in the country vowed to avenge the mass killing of Alawite civilians.

Supporters of pro-Iran armed groups in Iraq have launched an online campaign against Syrians who they say support the mass killings.

Iraqi forces have in recent days arrested at least 13 Syrians accused of “promoting terrorist groups” and supporting the mass killings in Syria, two interior ministry officials told AFP on condition of anonymity.

On Wednesday, Syria’s foreign ministry denounced the violence against its citizens, and urged Baghdad to take “necessary measures to ensure the security of Syrians residing in Iraq.”