Iraq’s defense minister said the US Secretary of Defense called him about ten days ago to warn against Iraqi factions interfering in military operations carried out by US forces near the Syrian border.
In an interview with Al Sharqiya TV, aired on October 31, the minister stated that he took the call alongside the Iraqi Army Chief of Staff, the Deputy Commander of Joint Operations, the operations assistant, and the military intelligence director. He noted the American side did not outline operational details and limited the message to a warning against interference.
The minister added that the American side informed him some operations would be conducted inside Syrian territory, and that US officials stressed the need for Iraqi factions to refrain from interfering.
According to the minister, the US defense secretary said verbatim: “You know how the US administration will respond if there is any interference.”
These remarks follow statements by the US envoy to Syria about a planned visit by Syria’s transitional president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, to Washington on November 10, with an expected meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House.
During the visit, President al-Sharaa is expected to sign Syria’s accession agreement to the US-led International Coalition against the Islamic State group.
The Iraqi government is also facing US pressure to disarm Iran-backed armed factions. On October 21, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio asked Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to accelerate efforts to disarm Iran-backed groups, saying such militias threaten the lives and livelihoods of both Americans and Iraqis and “drain Iraqi resources for the benefit of Tehran.”
The Iraqi prime minister had previously presented two options for armed factions: integrate into the security services or transition to political work, in an effort to regularize their status within the state.
Syria–Iraq security cooperation
Syria’s Interior Ministry announced on October 22 that the Anti-Narcotics Directorate seized 108 kilograms of hashish and 1.27 million Captagon pills in direct coordination with Iraq’s General Directorate for Narcotics Control.
It said several internationally wanted suspects in cross-border trafficking networks were arrested through joint field and intelligence coordination between the two sides, according to a ministry statement on Facebook.
Iraq’s Interior Ministry likewise confirmed that its General Directorate for Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances carried out a special operation in direct coordination with Syria’s Anti-Narcotics Directorate, saying one of its teams entered Syrian territory and, through joint coordination, seized 320 kilograms of narcotics.
The operation extends a series of joint international efforts implemented by Syria’s Anti-Narcotics Directorate with partner states under ongoing security and intelligence coordination to combat this dangerous scourge, the ministries said. They added that protecting society from drugs is a national and moral duty and that both sides will continue working to “dry up the sources of poison,” targeting youth and national security while boosting cooperation to safeguard Syria and Iraq.
On July 30, Syria’s Anti-Narcotics Directorate, working with Iraq’s counterpart, seized narcotics prepared for smuggling across the border. Directorate chief Khaled Eid said in a statement that the operation followed precise intelligence exchange between Syria’s Interior Ministry and Iraq’s Interior Ministry and was executed after careful study.
Caution in Syria–Iraq relations
In the post-Assad phase, Syria–Iraq ties are marked by a complex mix of historical grievances and security concerns on one hand, and economic opportunities and geopolitical constraints on the other.
Syria, after the fall of the ousted Assad regime, is wary of Iraq’s growing ties with Iran, which Damascus views as a threat to the new order. Iraq’s cautious posture toward Syria is shaped by external pressures to balance relations with Iran, maintain positive ties with the United States, and avoid becoming a battleground for proxy conflicts among regional powers such as Iran, the United States, and Israel.
This has pushed both neighbors to proceed cautiously, moving slowly toward limited security and economic understandings rather than rushing to restore full political relations, according to a study by the Harmoon Center for Contemporary Studies.
