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Iraq PM Invited to Meet with US President Biden at White House 

13 January 2023, Berlin: Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani speaks during a press conference. (dpa)
13 January 2023, Berlin: Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani speaks during a press conference. (dpa)
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Iraq PM Invited to Meet with US President Biden at White House 

13 January 2023, Berlin: Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani speaks during a press conference. (dpa)
13 January 2023, Berlin: Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani speaks during a press conference. (dpa)

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in New York on Monday and received an invitation from US President Joe Biden to visit the White House, a State Department spokesperson said.

Sudani, who is in New York to participate in the UN General Assembly, said a date for the official visit to Washington would be set at a later time, Iraqi state media reported.

Biden and Sudani have yet to meet since Sudani took office last year after being appointed by a coalition of parties, predominantly pro-Iran groups known as the Coordination Framework.

He has since walked a diplomatic tightrope between the US and Iran, two countries that in the past have fought out their rivalry on Iraqi soil.

Sudani and Blinken "renewed their commitment to continue strengthening the partnership between the two countries," the State Department spokesperson said.

Iraq has been a close partner of the US since Washington's 2003 invasion and both sides say they are trying to broaden their relationship from a near-singular focus on defense and counter-terrorism towards economic cooperation.

Blinken during the meeting "underscored US support" for the re-opening of a pipeline between Iraq's northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and Türkiye that has been shut since March.

Türkiye said last week the pipeline, which contributes about 0.5% of world oil supply, would be ready to resume operations soon, though it is unclear whether Baghdad and Ankara have agreed to the terms of a resumption of crude flows.

Blinken also "commended the Prime Minister’s commitment to judicial independence in Iraq’s recent conviction and sentencing of multiple individuals on terrorism charges in connection with the killing of US citizen Stephen Troell."

Iraq last month sentenced an Iranian man and four Iraqis to life in prison over Troell's November 2022 killing in a middle class neighborhood in central Baghdad.

Court officials did not name the defendants but said the four Iraqis were members of a Shiite militia.

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Syria Vows to Rid Itself of Assad’s Chemical Weapons Legacy

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani speaks during a national dialogue, a key milestone in the transition to a new political system after decades of Assad rule, in Damascus, Syria February 25, 2025. (Reuters)
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani speaks during a national dialogue, a key milestone in the transition to a new political system after decades of Assad rule, in Damascus, Syria February 25, 2025. (Reuters)
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Syria Vows to Rid Itself of Assad’s Chemical Weapons Legacy

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani speaks during a national dialogue, a key milestone in the transition to a new political system after decades of Assad rule, in Damascus, Syria February 25, 2025. (Reuters)
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani speaks during a national dialogue, a key milestone in the transition to a new political system after decades of Assad rule, in Damascus, Syria February 25, 2025. (Reuters)

Syria's foreign minister vowed on Wednesday to swiftly rid the country of chemical weapons remaining after the downfall of the Bashar al-Assad's government, and appealed to the international community for help.

Asaad Hassan al-Shibani spoke during closed-door meetings at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, where he became the first Syrian foreign minister to address the disarmament agency.

Following a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of people in 2013, Assad-led Syria joined the agency under a US-Russian deal and 1,300 metric tons of chemical weapons and precursors were destroyed.

But three inquiries - by a joint UN-OPCW mechanism, the OPCW's Investigation and Identification team, and a UN war crimes probe - concluded that Syrian government forces under Assad used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine barrel bombs in attacks during the civil war that killed or injured thousands.

As part of membership, Damascus was supposed to undergo inspections but for more than a decade the OPCW was prevented from uncovering the true scale of the chemical weapons program.

"Syria is ready ... to solve this decades-old problem imposed on us by a previous regime," Shibani told delegates.

"The legal obligations resulting from breaches are ones we inherited, not created. Nevertheless, our commitment is to dismantle whatever may be left from it, to put an end to this painful legacy and ensure Syria becomes a nation aligned with international norms."

Earlier on Wednesday, OPCW chief Fernando Arias called Syria's political shift "a new and historic opportunity to obtain clarifications on the full extent and scope of the Syrian chemical weapons program".

Shibani said planning had begun, but that the help of the international community would be critical. Syria would require technical assistance, logistical assistance, capacity building, resources and expertise on the ground, he said.

"Although the Assad regime stalled for many years, we understand the need to act quickly, but we also understand that this needs to be done thoroughly. For that, we cannot succeed alone," he said.

Syria's declared stockpile has never accurately reflected the situation on the ground, OPCW inspectors have concluded. They now want to visit roughly 100 sites that may have been tied to Assad's decades-old chemical weapons program.