After Turkish mediation failure, Iraq hopes Syria would respond to its demands

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi officials voiced hope that Syria would accept Iraqi demands to extradite those suspected of implementing the double explosion in Baghdad which kills 95 Iraqis and to put a limit to the active armed groups in Damascus to end the political crisis between the two countries. The Turkish mediation, led by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, failed to convince the Iraqi government to stop moving toward forming an international court despite the Iraqi Foreign Ministry’s announcement the continuity of this mediation. The mediation failed also to convince Syria to hand over wanted men. The spokesman for the Iraqi government, Ali al-Dabbagh, voiced hope that the Syria would accept the Iraqi ethical demands as he described them instead of heading to the Security Council to form an international criminal court. “It’s for the good of the two people to solve this issue, and Syria has to abide by the UN Security Council decision regarding fighting terrorism, and it should stop some groups’ activities as they are not political groups but they are working to destroy Iraq and this is not acceptable,” al-Dabbagh told Iraqi News. Baghdad ’s Governor Salah Abdulrazeq said on Thursday that any country involved in killing Iraqis will be sued in international courts. Iraq said on Thursday relations with Syria will not improve until its neighbor gives up terrorists it says plotted a devastating bombing in Baghdad and are being harboured by Damascus . “Our relations with Syria have reached a crossroads of whether they choose to have good relations with Iraq , or whether they choose to protect persons who attack Iraq ,” spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said. MP from the Sadrist bloc Zainab al-Kenani called on the parliament’s chairmanship to form a delegation of the defense, security and foreign relations committees to visit Damascus to ease tensions and know Syria ’s final position. “I call on Syria to cooperate with the Iraqi government in activating the international agreements signed between the two countries regarding securing the two countries’ borders,” she told Iraqi News. Bilateral relations effectively collapsed last week when the countries withdrew their envoys in the wake of massive twin truck bombings in Baghdad , which Iraq says were orchestrated in Syria . On several occasions, Iraq has presented Syria with a list of people it says have plotted attacks in Iraq , Dabbagh said, and Damascus gives up those wanted, diplomatic ties will suffer. “The Iraq government has asked for a long time that these people be handed over,” he said. “The list was given a few times during bilateral security committees but we always received evasive answers. Iraq will not accept this kind of situation.” Maliki demanded one last time that Syria hand over those named on the list during a meeting in Damascus on August 18, but he was rebuffed, Dabbagh said. The following day, truck bombs at the ministries of finance and foreign affairs left 95 people dead and some 600 wounded. On Sunday, the Iraqi security forces paraded on state television a former police chief who said he planned the finance ministry attack on the orders of Baathist bosses — loyal to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein — based in Syria . Iraq acted first on Tuesday, recalling its ambassador in Damascus . Syria , which has publicly condemned the Baghdad attacks, retaliated within hours by ordering back its envoy from Baghdad , triggering the crisis. Syria ‘s foreign ministry said it had informed Iraq that it was “waiting to receive an Iraqi delegation that would provide it with available evidence on the authors of the (finance ministry) attack. “If not, it will consider that what has been published in the Iraqi media is nothing but fabricated evidence for domestic political purposes,” a statement said. ” Syria has many times affirmed its commitment to the