Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa received an invitation to travel to Baghdad for an Arab Summit to be held in May, according to Syrian state media. The invite was widely expected. Sharaa has met with Iraq’s Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani, and an Iraqi delegation recently visited Damascus. Iraq and Syria are in talks on several issues, such as trade and security.
Syrian state media SANA said the “invitation was received during [Sharaas] meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister’s Special Envoy, Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Minister Ahmad Fakak al-Badrani.”
The Iraqi visit will be widely watched. It has already led to controversy. Pro-Iranian voices in Iraq, included those linked to various pro-Iranian militias have opposed the visit. They claim that Sharaa engaged in terror attacks in Iraq in the early 2000s.
Recently, new documents were leaked that showed Sharaa was detained at Camp Bucca by US forces from perhaps as early as 2005 to 2011.
The full details are not known. What is known is that Sharaa returned to Syria in 2011 and that he returned to fight the Assad regime and also lead an Al Qaeda affiliate named Nusrah Front. Later, that group became Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). It led the charge into Damascus on December 8 as the Assad regime collapsed. This led to Sharaa becoming president.
He would thus be returning to Iraq as P+president of Syria, with memories of being detained in Iraq as a prisoner. The pro-Iran militias accuse Sharaa of various crimes in Iraq. He was not convicted of any crimes, but he was associated with extremists at the time.
Syrian relation in the Arab world
Meanwhile, other countries are backing developments in Syria.
SANA state media in Syria reported that “Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani welcomed the reconstruction taking place in Syria after the fall of the former regime, considering that there is an awareness of the critical stage the country is going through.”
He said, “In Syria, we see a state being rebuilt and a people working to shape a new image for their country... There is an awareness of the critical nature of the phase Syria is going through and the need for a comprehensive national discourse.”
Syria has also thanked Qatar and Saudi Arabia for paying its debts to the World Bank.
“The Syrian Arab Republic expresses its deep gratitude and appreciation to the State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the generous fraternal initiative to announce the settlement of Syria’s financial arrears to the World Bank Group, which amounted to $15 million.” This will “serve the path of recovery and reconstruction,” Syrian state media noted. It will also help lead to stability.
Stability is key in Syria. In a recent interview on Rudaw [a Kurdish media channel based in Erbil in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq], Peter Galbraith, who served as a US ambassador and an assistant secretary-general of the UN stressed the importance of US troops in eastern Syria who are there as part of the anti-ISIS mission. The report said that the troops are important for stability.
However, the US is drawing down some of the 2,000 troops that are in eastern Syria. What matters is that some remain. Reports say the US will withdraw slowly over time in a phased withdrawal as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces integrate into the new Syrian security forces. “As long as there are enough [troops] to carry out the mission, to have a presence, and to coordinate airstrikes, whether it’s 2,000 or 800, that’s not hugely important,” Galbraith said, according to Rudaw.
He also told Rudaw that “Syrian Kurds must be clear about their demands, particularly insisting that the country’s new constitution be drafted by an elected constituent assembly and not appointed by Sharaa.” Galbraith went on to say that “a constitution must come from bargaining among Syria’s diverse communities to ensure broad representation.”