Damascus urges Iraq to reopen border crossing with Syria

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Foreign Minister has received a message from his Syrian counterpart over intensifying efforts to re-open the border crossing between the two countries from west of Anbar in Iraq and al-Bu Kamal city in Syria.

Iraqi Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari highlighted, as he received the message from Syrian counterpart Walid al-Moallem, “necessity of cooperation between the two countries in order to resolve the Arab issues through political solutions without intervention in the countries’ affairs.”

Meanwhile, the Syrian ambassador to Baghdad Setam Jadaan al-Dandah, who delivered the message, commanded Iraqi stances which supports resolving the Syrian issues peacefully. He also expressed his government’s desire to boost the bilateral cooperation to achieve stability.

Observers believe that reopening the border crossing could be dangerous as terrorist groups like Islamic State still exists in al-Bu Kamal, located on the right bank of Euphrates River, east of Syria, which is eight kilometers away from Iraqi-Syrian borders. However, reopening the crossing could reinforce the security presence by both Iraqi and Syrian troops, which could prevent infiltration of militants into Iraq.

The Iraqi-Syrian borders are under the control of joint troops of military and border guards.
Iraqi warplanes launched, last month, a new wave of air raids against outposts of the Islamic State group in Syria.

In April, Abadi denied intentions to intervene within Syrian affairs, saying airstrikes against Islamic State will continue.

Iraq had previously announced launching airstrikes against IS locations in Syria. This came after Abadi said security troops will follow IS militants in the whole region, not only in Iraq.