Mladenov urges UNSC to condemn recent terrorist attacks in Iraq

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The conflict in Syria is helping fuel terrorism and sectarian tensions in neighboring Iraq, enabling groups like al-Qaeda to forge links with similar factions across the border, the U.N. envoy to Iraq said Monday.

Nickolay Mladenov told the U.N. Security Council that resolving the Syrian crisis and adopting a regional strategy against all forms of religious or sectarian extremism “are vital to bringing stability to Iraq.”

“Today, more than ever, Iraq’s challenges cannot be considered in isolation from the broader risks that face the region,” he said, noting that more than 202,000 Syrian refugees are registered in Iraq, 98 percent of them in Kurdistan.

Mladenov said deteriorating security in Iraq, compounded by political deadlock, is being exploited by terrorists and armed groups trying to incite sectarian hatred and undermine the government.

“All political, civic and religious leaders that he met in Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil, Anbar and Kirkuk expressed deep concern over the escalating violence, and a growing anxiety that Syria and other outside influences “are fueling the terrorist threat to Iraq,” he concluded.