Iraqi, Syrian presidents stress need to join hands against terrorism

Iraqi President Barham Salih and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad have underlined the need for their countries to work together to confront common dangers, especially terrorism.

“President Salih made a phone call today, with al-Assad, where they discussed bilateral relations between the two neighboring countries and the two brotherly peoples who have close historical, geographical and social ties, in addition to discussing challenges,” the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported on Thursday, citing the media office of the Iraqi president.

They underlined the need to “join hands together in the face of common dangers, especially terrorism and combating its remnants that seek to destabilize security and stability in the two countries and the region, and not allow terrorist groups to catch their breath and exploit loopholes to carry out their criminal acts.”

According to Syria’s official news agency SANA, the two sides stressed the necessity of joint cooperation to consolidate the positive outcomes achieved in the fight against terrorist groups along the Syrian-Iraqi border regions.

Iraq and Syria, in recent years, have been faced with the emergence of foreign-backed terrorist groups, out of which Daesh popped up and dramatically deteriorated the situation in both countries.

Resistance forces of the two Arab nations, such as Iraq’s anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) which is composed of dozens of groups, have successfully dealt with terrorism, ridding both countries of Daesh and other terrorists, while their struggle to eradicate the remnants of the terrorists continues.

The US and Israel, however, have conducted countless strikes against Iraqi and Syrian resistance forces in recent years, trying to hold them back in their fight against terrorism.

ME