ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Syrian border official said Wednesday that there is no new decision requiring Iraqi citizens to have a guarantor - kafil in Arabic - to obtain entry visas, stressing that border procedures remain unchanged and that tens of thousands of Iraqis have entered Syria this year.
In an interview with Rudaw's Nalin Hassan, the director of relations at the Syrian general authority for border crossings and customs, Mazen Alloush, said that “there is no such decision" requiring a guarantor from Iraqis to get a Syrian visa, adding that there are broad groups of people who "enter Syria directly through the crossings without a prior visa.”
His remarks came in response to allegations from Iraqi officials that Syria had recently introduced stricter entry conditions involving a guarantor requirement for visa issuance.
Mohammed Jassim Kakai, head of the security and defense committee in the Nineveh provincial council, told Rudaw on Wednesday that Iraqi citizens seeking to visit Syria "must first have someone inside Syria process the paperwork and act as their guarantor; only then are they granted an entry visa at the border.”
He called for the measure to be lifted, arguing it has created obstacles for Iraqi citizens, including families traveling for urgent humanitarian reasons.
Kakai cited the case of a Kurdish family from the Zummar sub-district in Nineveh whose relatives were unable to attend a funeral in Syria due to the alleged requirement.
Iraq and the Kurdistan Region share a roughly 620-kilometer border with Syria and its northeast (Rojava), with Nineveh province bordering Syria through the Rabia crossing, known on the Syrian side as al-Yarubiyah. The crossing, located around 120 kilometers from Mosul, was reopened in April 2026 after years of closure following the Islamic State (ISIS) offensive in 2014.
Kakai urged authorities to remove what he described as bureaucratic barriers and allow Iraqi citizens to enter Syria using standard visa procedures without needing a guarantor.
However, Alloush said that large numbers of Iraqis continue to enter Syria under existing rules, noting "more than 40,000 Iraqis have entered Syria" since the beginning of this year.
According to Alloush, those exempt from standard visa requirements or guarantor procedures include Iraqis married to Syrian citizens, holders of Syrian residency permits, Iraqi students in Syrian universities, businesspeople, professionals and media personnel with prior approval, children of Syrian mothers under the age of 15, as well as diplomats and other special cases.
Alloush added those who do not fall into these categories "only need to obtain a regular visa from the Ministry of Interior, which is simply a measure to organize travel.”
He said cross-border movement between the two countries remains active, "reflecting the growth of economic and commercial relations between the two brotherly nations.”
“From the beginning of 2025 until the end of May 2026, approximately 65,000 Iraqi citizens visited Syria. In the first five months of this year alone, 41,000 Iraqis entered Syrian territory.”
The Syrian official also said border crossings are functioning normally, including al-Qaim border crossing in Iraq’s Anbar province, the Rabia crossing in Nineveh province, and the Semalka crossing linking Syria with the Kurdistan Region.
Alloush added that Syria’s procedures for Iraqi entry are intended to facilitate movement and, in his view, are more flexible compared to restrictions imposed on Syrians entering Iraq, which he underscored as Damascus’ desire to strengthen bilateral ties.
Nahro Mohammed contributed to this report.
