Iraq-Syria Dispute Update

While Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said that talks with Syria have gone nowhere over the August 2009 Baghdad bombings, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani called for an international tribunal to investigate the attacks while at the United Nations in New York City, behind the scenes things actually seem to be making some progress. On September 9, 2009 it was announced that the Syrian and Iraqi foreign ministers had agreed to stop the media campaigns against each other, return ambassadors, and form security committees. On September 25, Iraq’s Foreign Minister told the media that Syria had agreed to form a joint Iraqi-Syrian-Turksih committee to look into terrorist camps in Syria.

SOURCES

Alsumaria, “Damascus approves to form Turkish-Syrian-Iraqi investigation committee,” 9/25/09

Aswat al-Iraq, “Maliki says Arab efforts to patch up differences with Syria did not work out,” 9/22/09
- “Talabani stresses importance of int’l probe into Baghdad bombings,” 9/25/09

Xinhua, “Iraq, Syria agree to stop media campaigns, speed up returning ambassadors,” 9/9/09