Biden’s Nominee for Iraq Ambassador Says Iran ‘Remains a Malign Actor’

Tracy Jacobson was the US Ambassador to Ehtiopia in 2022. Photo: State Department
Tracy Jacobson was the US Ambassador to Ehtiopia in 2022. Photo: State Department
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Biden’s Nominee for Iraq Ambassador Says Iran ‘Remains a Malign Actor’

Tracy Jacobson was the US Ambassador to Ehtiopia in 2022. Photo: State Department
Tracy Jacobson was the US Ambassador to Ehtiopia in 2022. Photo: State Department

Tracy Jacobson, US President Joe Biden's nominee for Ambassador to Iraq, has surprised Iraqi officials with unconventional statements about Iranian influence and Tehran-backed militias.

In her opening statement to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Jacobson thanked the President and the Secretary of State “for their confidence.”

“Our military provides vital support in an advise, assist, and enable role to the Iraqi security forces and the Peshmerga in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Ten years after our troops returned to Iraq at the government’s invitation to fight ISIS – and five years after ISIS’s territorial defeat – it is time for our military to transition to a new role,” she said.

“If confirmed, I will ensure any transition from Operation Inherent Resolve to a bilateral security arrangement will be geared toward the defeat of ISIS and Iraq's security,” Jacobson told the Committee.

In her statement, Jacobson warned that Iran “remains a malign actor and a destabilizing influence in the region that threatens to undo all of Iraq’s achievements. We recognize that the primary threat to Iraq’s stability and sovereignty are the Iran-aligned militias.”

She said it was important for Iraq to strengthen its ties with many of its neighbors and “Prime Minister (Mohammed Shia) Sudani has taken positive steps in that direction.”

Earlier this year, Sudani's office said the Iraqi government was beginning the process to remove the US-led international military coalition from the country.

Yassin al-Bakri, Professor of Political Science at the University of Nahrain, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the new ambassador's mission will be to arrange the security transition.



Syria Says foiled Attempt to Smuggle out 4 million Captagon Tablets

A member of the security forces of the new Syrian authorities shows Captagon pills found in a compound of the ousted president Bashar al-Assad's forces in Damascus on January 7, 2025. (File/AFP)
A member of the security forces of the new Syrian authorities shows Captagon pills found in a compound of the ousted president Bashar al-Assad's forces in Damascus on January 7, 2025. (File/AFP)
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Syria Says foiled Attempt to Smuggle out 4 million Captagon Tablets

A member of the security forces of the new Syrian authorities shows Captagon pills found in a compound of the ousted president Bashar al-Assad's forces in Damascus on January 7, 2025. (File/AFP)
A member of the security forces of the new Syrian authorities shows Captagon pills found in a compound of the ousted president Bashar al-Assad's forces in Damascus on January 7, 2025. (File/AFP)

Syrian authorities on Monday announced that they had thwarted an attempt to smuggle out four million tablets of captagon, an amphetamine-like narcotic that has flooded the region.
The interior ministry said in a statement that authorities seized “over four million captagon tablets that were tightly hidden inside industrial equipment designed for manufacturing flour used for human consumption.”
It said they had acted on “accurate information received from our sources about a shipment of drugs hidden inside industrial equipment prepared for smuggling outside the country.”
Under Assad’s rule, captagon became Syria’s largest export during the civil war that erupted in 2011 and a key source of illicit funding for his government, according to AFP.
Since Assad’s ouster last December, the new authorities have discovered millions of captagon pills in warehouses and on military bases.
The interior ministry said those involved in the latest operation have been “arrested, the equipment containing the drugs has been seized, and the arrested individuals have been referred for investigation based on a decision issued by the public prosecution.”