Iraq, Iran, Syria hold emergency meeting rebel Homs offensive

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Baghdad on Friday morning for a three-way meeting with his Iraqi and Syrian counterparts to discuss the developments in Syria, where rebels have captured swathes of territory in little over a week.

Araghchi is due to meet with Syrian Foreign Minister Bassam Al-Sabbagh and Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein for a closed meeting this afternoon after which a joint stance from Baghdad-Tehran regarding the crisis in Syria is expected to be announced,

Syrian rebel forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group launched their offensive a little over a week ago, inflicting a series of shock defeats on regime forces and its allies in several areas and taking control of the central and strategically important city Hama on Thursday.

“Iraq is following events in Syria with great concern due to the direct impact they will have on the security and stability of the region,” stated the Iraqi FM Fuad Hussein as he received Araghchi.

The lightning advances of Syrian opposition factions, who took control of Hama on Thursday evening, had taken everyone by surprise including Assad’s allies, Iraq, Iran, and Russia.

An Iraqi foreign ministry official, who wished to remain anonymous said: “Whatever the outcome of the meeting between the three ministers, there’s a conviction that it’s too late to address many of the developments on the ground and swing the balance in favour of the Syrian army (regime forces).”

On Thursday evening, Syrian regime forces called their withdrawal from their positions within the governorates taken over by the opposition advance “tactical” and claimed they were preparing a counterattack.

Shia divisions on Syria

Elsewhere, prominent Iraqi voices are increasingly calling for non-interference in Syria and avoiding the deployment of Iraqi fighters to support the Syrian regime.

Khamis Al-Khanjar, head of the Sovereignty Alliance, the largest Sunni Arab bloc in Iraq released a statement warning of the consequences of intervention and called for the withdrawal of armed faction fighters present in Syria.

Following this, Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr who leads the Sadrist movement made a similar call.

Sadr stressed in a post on X the “necessity of Iraq’s government, people, parties, militias, and security forces not getting involved in the Syrian issue”.

“We remain steadfast in our stance of non-interference in Syrian affairs and in not opposing the decisions of the Syrian people, as they are the sole party responsible for determining their destiny,” he added.

This coincided with a call from HTS leader, Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani, urging Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani to distance his security forces from events in Syria.

On the other side, Falih al-Fayyadh, who leads the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), said that Iraq couldn’t “turn a blind eye when terrorist groups are controlling Syria” describing events there as “foreign agendas and Western interventions” according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).

“Although Iraq is not a party to the crisis, it must take preventive measures given what is happening in a neighbouring country. Syria constitutes our vital security sphere, which cannot be separated from Iraq, and anyone who claims otherwise is deluded,” he said.

This article is based on an article which appeared in our Arabic edition by Saber Gul Anbari and Mohammed Ali on 6 December 2024. To read the original article click here.