ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The interior ministries of Iraq and Syria on Sunday signed a security agreement covering several areas including border control and combating drugs.
“A memorandum of understanding for joint security cooperation between the two countries was signed,” Iraqi Interior Minister Abdul-Amir al-Shammari said during a press conference in Baghdad with his Syrian counterpart Mohammed Khalid al-Rahmoun.
“The agreement included a number of articles related to cooperation in combating drugs, border control, extradition of wanted individuals, combating organized crime, and money laundering,” Shammari added.
The Iraqi minister noted that there is “good” intelligence cooperation between Baghdad and Damascus and the “two countries have joint work in exchanging information.”
“Cooperation in all fields, especially security, was discussed, as we suffered from terrorism in our countries, and there is a criminal phenomenon managed by drug trafficking and human trafficking gangs, so we signed a memorandum of joint security cooperation,” Rahmoun said.
Previous security operations between the neighbours “have resulted in dismantling some networks and seizing quantities of drugs,” according to Rahmoun.
They will hold a comprehensive meeting on regional security cooperation on July 22.
Iraq shares a long border with Syria, spanning over 600 kilometers. Only part of it is controlled by the government in Damascus. The northern portion is held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Iraq has built a concrete wall along stretches of the border to prevent smuggling and the movement of armed groups, including the Islamic State (ISIS), which seized control of vast swathes of Syrian and Iraqi land in 2014. The extremist group facilitated the movement of fighters, captives, and weapons between the two countries.
Rahmoun noted that Iraq has achieved “great successes in eliminating ISIS,” however he warned that the group is still active in hotspots in Syria where it carries out periodic attacks.
The smuggling of narcotics across the border is a growing problem. The interior ministers of Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon met in Amman in February and announced they would cooperate to combat narcotics and the spread of illegal substances.
