ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Damascus has not requested military support from Baghdad, Iraq’s government spokesperson told Rudaw on Friday, as the Syrian army continues to lose ground to a rapid rebel advance.
“So far, the Syrian government has not requested military support from us, but they informed us that their country is in a bad situation and warned about the challenges ahead,” said Basim al-Awadi.
“We will not make a military intervention in Syria,” he added.
Baghdad has closed its border with Syria and bolstered security along the frontier.
“We have deployed a large number of support forces,” Awadi noted.
Syria’s civil war was dramatically reignited last week when a coalition of rebels led by the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched a blistering offensive against the Syrian army. They quickly took control of the northern city of Aleppo, the most populated urban center in the country, and then advanced into the strategic central province of Hama, capturing the city on Thursday when the Syrian army announced its withdrawal.
The foreign ministers of Iraq, Syria and Iran met in Baghdad on Friday and held a joint press conference where Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said their discussions focused on "the difficult and dangerous situation in Syria."
"We discussed in detail the dangerous situation and its impact on other countries and neighboring countries, especially on Iraq. The security of Syria is definitely related to the security of the region, and the security of the region is related to the security of the countries in the region,” he added.
Malik Mohammed contributed to this article.
