Iraqi diplomat says conflicts in region caused by ‘conflict of international interests’

Chargé d’affaires at the Iraqi Embassy in Damascus Riad Hasson al-Ta’ee has declared that the ‘conflict of international interests’ is the reason behind the turmoil and conflicts in the region.

He told the Damascus-based al-Watan newspaper that fueling the sectarian conflicts in the region has international dimensions.

“International and regional reasons led to the ‘Arab spring’,” the diplomat said, adding that the international plans to fragment Iraq and Syria have international dimensions and not internal ones.

He described the Iraqi-Syrian relations as ‘good’, indicating that the Syrian Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem has been invited to visit Iraq.

Trading halt

Regarding commercial exchange, which stood at 3 billion dollars before 2011, Al-Ta’ee stressed that the ISIS ‘s recapture of border areas between Iraq and Syria has led to the halt of trading and to the sharp reduction in commercial exchange rate.

He added that any economic development necessitates security stability and restoration of peace to the two countries [ Iraq and Syria].

“Iraq’s stance towards Syria is based on national and independent decision… Iraq and Syria are facing the same enemy, i.e. terrorism , which is backed by some countries that are against the Islamic resistance movements ,” the diplomatic official asserted.

60.000  Iraqis in Syria

He pointed out that 60.000 Iraqis are still living in Syrian cities besides 8100 Iraqi refugees living in camps set up by the UNHCR in Hasaka province for the Iraqis who fled Mosul and Sinjar after the ISIS terrorists’ recapture of them.

“The ISIS control shrunk from 40 percent to 12 percent of Iraqi territory  thanks to the Fatwa of His Eminence the Grand Ayatollah al-Sayyid ‘Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani, who unified the Iraqis,” al-Ta’eeaffirmed, confirming that a lot of Iraqi persons from all sects – Shia, Sunni, Yazidi, Kurd and Christian, joined the popular mobilization forces to liberate Iraqi areas from ISIS terrorists.

BasmaQaddour