Blinken makes unannounced trip to Iraq as international community grapples with Syrian regime collapse

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN

Baghdad (CNN) — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Iraq Friday to meet with Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as the international community grapples with the implications of the Syrian government’s collapse.

Blinken met with Sudani for more than an hour in Baghdad — the latest in a string of meetings in Turkey and Jordan amid an urgent effort to coordinate an approach to Syria following the sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime to rebel forces last weekend.

As the US works with its key regional partners like Iraq, there is particular focus on ensuring that “any interim government also makes sure that Syria is not used as a base for terrorism, extremism and pose a threat to its neighbors or ally with groups like ISIS,” Blinken said Thursday. He noted that the infamous terrorist group “no doubt will seek to regroup.”

Blinken’s meeting with the Iraqi prime minister comes days after the top US military commander for the Middle East visited “for an assessment of the D-ISIS mission inside Iraq and Syria.” Two top State Department officials were also in Baghdad ahead of Blinken’s visit.

The US is also closely watching the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, who have targeted US personnel and interests in the past. National security adviser Jake Sullivan noted Saturday that they “could try to take advantage of” the instability in Syria. Blinken, during a visit last November in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack, had urged the Iraqi government to work to stem those attacks.

Speaking after the meeting, Blinken said the US and Iraq are “determined to make sure that (ISIS) cannot re-emerge.”

The US and Iraq “had tremendous success in taking away the territorial caliphate that Daesh had created years ago, and now, having put Daesh back in its box, we can’t let it out,” he said. Daesh is another name for ISIS.

“I reaffirmed for the prime minister our commitment to working with Iraq on security and always working for Iraq’s sovereignty to make sure that that is strengthened and preserved,” he said in a seeming nod to the influence of Iranian-backed militias in the country.

“In all of this, what’s happening in Syria does have an important impact, and it’s very significant that Iraq, along with many other countries in the region and beyond, will make best efforts to support the Syrian people as they emerge from the Assad years,” Blinken noted in remarks at the US embassy in the Iraqi capital.

Blinken asked Sudani to crack down on Iranian supported militias in Iraq and prevent Iran from transiting weapons through Iraq to Shia militias in Syria, a US official said.

The official described the asks as broad and noted there will be lower level discussions on specifics in coming days.

Blinken noted that Syria is in a fragile state so it is important that nobody, especially Iran, does anything that would add to destabilization, the official said.

The top US diplomat also noted that Iran is very weak and there’s a lot of resentment in Syria about Tehran’s role in backing the Assad regime, so now would be a good time for Iran to exert its sovereignty.

Sudani said they do not want to be dragged into a conflict, the official said without providing further characterization of the Iraqi prime minister’s response.

After his stop in Iraq, Blinken will return to Aqaba, Jordan, for a ministerial on Saturday focused on efforts to reconstruct Syrian state institutions in a way that “preserves Syria’s unity, territorial integrity, sovereignty, security, stability, and the rights of all its citizens,” according to a Jordanian foreign ministry statement.

“We’re back in the region at a time of both real promise but also peril for Syria and for its neighbors. And the focus of our work here is to coordinate efforts across the region to support the Syrian people as they transition away from Assad’s brutal dictatorship,” Blinken told the press in Aqaba on Thursday.

Regional leaders have agreed on the importance on a “unified approach” to the situation, Blinken said, noting that “we’re having now detailed conversations about what it exactly look like, and I would anticipate that you’ll see countries coming together in support of a just basic approach.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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