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Iraqi Foreign Minister: We Have Received Explicit Israeli Threats

Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid addresses the Peace Forum in Duhok (Rudaw Network)
Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid addresses the Peace Forum in Duhok (Rudaw Network)
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Iraqi Foreign Minister: We Have Received Explicit Israeli Threats

Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid addresses the Peace Forum in Duhok (Rudaw Network)
Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid addresses the Peace Forum in Duhok (Rudaw Network)

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein stated on Friday that Iraq has received explicit threats from Israel, adding that the country’s armed forces have been instructed by the prime minister to prevent any attacks originating from Iraqi territory.

According to the Iraqi News Agency (INA), Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani directed the armed forces to take action against anyone launching attacks from the country. The foreign minister emphasized that Iraq does not seek war and aims to avoid its dangers, noting that the region is “on fire” and facing “clear threats from Israel.”

The agency also reported that the Iraqi government has requested an emergency meeting of the Arab League Council to address Israeli threats. Iraq’s permanent representative to the Arab League submitted a request for a session at the level of permanent representatives of member states to confront what was described as menaces from the “Zionist entity.”

Earlier, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced that he had sent a message to the president of the UN Security Council urging immediate action against activities of Iran-backed militias in Iraq. Sa’ar asserted that the Iraqi government bears responsibility for any actions occurring within or emanating from its territory.

Meanwhile, Iraqi officials have expressed pessimism about the outcome of the ongoing war in the Middle East. Nevertheless, they emphasized Baghdad’s commitment to supporting efforts to achieve lasting peace and security.

Speaking at the American University Forum in Duhok on Friday, Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani highlighted that the challenges facing Iraq have fundamentally changed since October 7.

He described the current situation in the Middle East as a “second Nakba”, stressing that the challenges stem from the failure of the international system, which he described as “ambiguous.”

Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid stated that Iraq would play its role in promoting peace in the Middle East and expressed his full support for efforts aimed at achieving a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish issue in Türkiye.

Speaking at the Duhok Forum, Rashid said that Iraq and the region are facing circumstances that require all parties to closely monitor the situation and find appropriate solutions to ongoing problems, emphasizing the need for lasting peace and security.

Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, called for Iraq to remain neutral in the conflict, saying: “The crises in the region and the scenes of war in Lebanon and Gaza are tragic. We hope this suffering will come to an end.”

“We are all awaiting changes following the US presidential election. All indications suggest that a Trump administration will adopt a different approach compared to President Biden’s policies,” he added.

The Iraqi government has stated that under the Strategic Framework Agreement and security pact with the United States, Washington is responsible for “deterring and responding to any external attacks that threaten Iraq’s internal security.”

According to media reports, the US has informed Baghdad that Israeli military strikes on Iraq are “imminent” unless Baghdad prevents Iran-backed factions from launching attacks against Israel.

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Arab World

Syria Hopes to Hold New Talks with Kurdish Forces

Members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) queue to settle their status with Syrian government in Raqqa, Syria January 27, 2026. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
Members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) queue to settle their status with Syrian government in Raqqa, Syria January 27, 2026. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
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Syria Hopes to Hold New Talks with Kurdish Forces

Members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) queue to settle their status with Syrian government in Raqqa, Syria January 27, 2026. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
Members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) queue to settle their status with Syrian government in Raqqa, Syria January 27, 2026. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri

The Syrian government hopes to hold a new round of talks with the Kurdish-led ​Syrian Democratic Forces, possibly later on Tuesday, to spell out how the force would merge into the central state, a senior Syrian government official said.

Syria's government and the SDF have been locked in a year-long dispute over whether and how Kurdish civilian and military institutions, which have operated autonomously in northeast ‌Syria for ‌a decade, would integrate into ‌the Damascus-based ⁠government.

After ​a ‌deadline to merge passed at the end of 2025 with little progress, Syrian troops seized swathes of northern and eastern territory from the SDF in a rapid turn of events that has consolidated Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's rule.

The two sides signed a sweeping integration ⁠deal on January 18 but have yet to hammer out the ‌details, Reuters reported.

The Syrian official said that ‍would be the aim ‍of the upcoming meeting, which he said would ‍be held "with US support".

Washington has been engaged in shuttle diplomacy to reach a lasting ceasefire and political resolution between the SDF - once its top ally in Syria - and Sharaa, now ​its favoured partner in the country.

The official declined to say where exactly the meeting ⁠would take place but said it would be inside Syria and likely in a neutral location - neither Damascus nor the remaining Kurdish-held cities of the northeast.

The spectre of resumed fighting between the two sides still looms over the talks, with Syrian government troops amassed around a cluster of Kurdish-held cities in the north, where Kurdish fighters are reinforcing their defensive lines.

The ‌two sides agreed to a ceasefire that was extended on Saturday until February 8.

Arab World

Russian Forces Begin Pulling Out of Bases in Northeast Syria

Pro-Kurdish protesters tear down a border fence as they attempt to cross to the Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli during a demonstration in support of Syrian Kurds and against recent military clashes between the Syrian army and Kurdish forces, in Nusaybin, southeastern Türkiye, January 20, 2026. REUTERS/Ensar Ozdemir
Pro-Kurdish protesters tear down a border fence as they attempt to cross to the Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli during a demonstration in support of Syrian Kurds and against recent military clashes between the Syrian army and Kurdish forces, in Nusaybin, southeastern Türkiye, January 20, 2026. REUTERS/Ensar Ozdemir
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Russian Forces Begin Pulling Out of Bases in Northeast Syria

Pro-Kurdish protesters tear down a border fence as they attempt to cross to the Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli during a demonstration in support of Syrian Kurds and against recent military clashes between the Syrian army and Kurdish forces, in Nusaybin, southeastern Türkiye, January 20, 2026. REUTERS/Ensar Ozdemir
Pro-Kurdish protesters tear down a border fence as they attempt to cross to the Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli during a demonstration in support of Syrian Kurds and against recent military clashes between the Syrian army and Kurdish forces, in Nusaybin, southeastern Türkiye, January 20, 2026. REUTERS/Ensar Ozdemir

Russian forces have begun pulling out of positions in northeast Syria in an area still controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces after the group lost most of its territory in an offensive by government forces.

Associated Press journalists visited one base next to the Qamishli airport Tuesday and found it guarded by SDF fighters who said the Russians had begun moving their equipment out in recent days.

Inside what had been living quarters for the soldiers was largely empty, with scattered items left behind, including workout equipment, protein powder and some clothing.

Ahmed Ali, an SDF fighter deployed at the facility, said the Russian forces began evacuating their positions around the airport five or six days ago, withdrawing their equipment via a cargo plane.

“We don’t know if its destination was Russia or the Hmeimim airbase,” he said, referring to the main Russian base on Syria’s coast. “They still have a presence in Qamishli and have been evacuating bit by bit.”

There has been no official statement from Russia about the withdrawal of its forces from Qamishli.

Russia has built relations with the new central Syrian government in Damascus since former President Bashar Assad was ousted in December 2024 in a rebel offensive led by now-interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa - despite the fact that Moscow was a close ally of Assad.

Moscow’s scorched-earth intervention in support of Assad a decade ago turned the tide of Syria’s civil war at the time, keeping Assad in his seat. Russia didn’t try to counter the rebel offensive in late 2024 but gave asylum to Assad after he fled the country.

Despite having been on opposite sides of the battle lines during the civil war, the new rulers in Damascus have taken a pragmatic approach to relations with Moscow. Russia has retained a presence at its air and naval bases on the Syrian coast.

Al-Sharaa is expected to visit Moscow on Wednesday and meet with Putin.

Fighting broke out early this month between the SDF and government forces after negotiations over a deal to merge their forces together broke down. A ceasefire is now in place and has been largely holding.

After the expiration of a four-day truce Saturday, the two sides announced the ceasefire had been extended by another 15 days.

Syria's defense ministry said in a statement that the extension was in support of an operation by US forces to transfer accused ISIS militants who had been held in prisons in northeastern Syria to detention centers in Iraq.

Arab World

UN Push to Get Hundreds of Thousands of Gaza Children Back to School

Palestinian students attend class inside a tent set up on the beach in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP)
Palestinian students attend class inside a tent set up on the beach in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP)
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UN Push to Get Hundreds of Thousands of Gaza Children Back to School

Palestinian students attend class inside a tent set up on the beach in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP)
Palestinian students attend class inside a tent set up on the beach in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP)

The United Nations announced Tuesday a major push to get hundreds of thousands of children across the war-scarred Gaza Strip back to school.

Since the start of the war sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, nearly 90 percent of schools in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed and more than 700,000 school-aged children have been left unable to access formal education, according to the UN children's agency UNICEF.

"Almost two and a half years of attacks on Gaza's schooling have left an entire generation at risk," agency spokesman James Elder told reporters in Geneva, AFP reported.

UNICEF was now dramatically scaling up its education initiative in the Palestinian territory, Elder said, in what he described as "one of the largest emergency learning efforts anywhere in the world".

The organization currently supports more than 135,400 children receiving education at over 110 learning spaces in Gaza -- many of them in tents, he said.

But it now aims to more than double that number to include more than 336,000 children this by the end of this year, and to get all school-age children back in in-person learning in 2027.

UNICEF is working on the project with the Palestinian education ministry and the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which before the war was providing schooling to around half of Gaza's children.

UNICEF would need $86 million for its education program in Gaza this year -- "roughly what the world spends on coffee in an hour or two", Elder pointed out.

Getting children back to school "is not a 'nice to have'. It is an emergency", he insisted.

He highlighted that "before this war, Palestinians in Gaza had some of the highest literacy rates in the world".

"Today that legacy is under attack: schools, universities, and libraries have been destroyed, and years of progress erased," he said.

Elder also stressed that learning in Gaza was "lifesaving".

"These centres provide safe spaces in a territory that is often inaccessible and dangerous," he pointed out, adding that they also connect children to health, nutrition and protection services, as well as clean toilets and places to wash hands -- "something too many children in shelters simply don't have".

The push to scale up access to education comes as aid groups have managed to bring more supplies into the besieged territory since a fragile US-backed ceasefire took effect last October.

UNICEF said that it had managed to bring in more than 4,400 recreational kits and 240 School-in-a-Carton kits, containing things like pencils, pens, chalk, exercise books, and geometry sets.

And it said it expected the total number of kits brought in to surpass 11,000 by the end of the week, with nearly 7,000 others in the pipeline for coming weeks.