Thursday, March 28, 2024

Baghdad

Iraq rattled by Hezbollah-Islamic State evacuation deal

 Iraq rattled by Hezbollah-Islamic State evacuation deal

Iraqi-Jordanian borders.

Iraqi

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A deal forged between Islamic State militants and Lebanese Hezbollah militia to withdraw IS fighters from the Lebanese to the Iraqi borders has drawn opposition from Iraq.

The transfer, which went into action on Sunday, supervised by the Syrian government army, came as part of  a ceasefire deal that ended a week of battles between the Lebanese army on one front and Hezbollah with the Syrian army on the other against Islamic State’s mountainous enclaves along the Lebanon-Syria border.

“Iraq should not pay the price for agreements that affect its security and sovereignty,” said Iraqi Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jubouri said Wednesday, saying that the agreement was “a return to square one and a misrecognition of the martyrs’ bloods,” as he put it.

Mohamed al-Karbouli, head of the parliament’s defense and security committee, said some of IS fighters evacuated as part of the deal had entered the group’s havens at Anbar province’s borders with Syria, according to information received from residents of the town of Rawa. “The area between Syria’s Boukamal and Sakra, south of Hit, Anbar, is open and out of control,” he said, quoted by Alsumaria News.

Karbouli said reaching the deal was “a grave mistake”

Karbala province council also made a statement deeming the measure “unjustified and dangerous”, and said it represented a threat to the security of Iraq, especially the holy city which has borders with Syria.

Earlier on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi also slammed the agreement, urging investigation by the Syrian government.

 

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