Iraq call halt to security talks with Syria: 'This is the final meeting'
BAGHDAD — Iraq has broken off security cooperation talks with Syria.
Officials said Syria has refused to cooperate to halt the flow of Al
Qaida and other Sunni insurgents to Iraq. They said the regime of President
Bashar Assad has failed to provide information on fugitives from the former
Saddam Hussein regime believed harbored by Damascus.
"This is the final meeting," Iraqi government spokesman Ali Al Dabbagh
said.
On Sept. 16, Al Dabbagh gave a briefing on talks that took place in
Ankara in mid-September, Middle East Newsline reported. The briefing came in wake of a Syrian refusal to
accept an Iraqi list of fugitives harbored by the Assad regime.
"We consider this security meeting as the final one," Dabbagh said.
"Such a meeting won't happen in the future unless Syria positively responds
to the unchallenged evidence and proof presented by Iraq."
Iraqi intelligence has assessed that Syria was harboring at least 100
former senior Saddam aides believed to be directing the insurgency in Iraq.
The
assessment said the aides were working with the Al Qaida network to conduct
mass-casualty suicide strikes in such cities as Baghdad and Mosul.
Turkey and the Arab League have sought to reconcile Iraq and Syria in
wake of the mass-casualty suicide car bombings in Baghdad in August. On late
Sept. 17, Arab League secretary-general Amr Mussa had been scheduled to
convene the foreign ministers of Iraq and Syria to discuss a way to ease
tensions.
The United States has also urged Iraq and Syria to forge security
cooperation against Al Qaida. The administration of President Barack Obama
has refused to echo Baghdad's accusations of Syrian support to the Al Qaida
network in Iraq.
Over the last few weeks, Iraq has released information on Syrian
assistance to Al Qaida and Saddam supporters. Baghdad has broadcast
confessions of a captured Al Qaida operative who reported training camps in
Syria and identified his handlers in Syrian intelligence.
