ISIS Dormant Cells Pave Way for Open US Presence in Iraq

A US soldier in Iraq. (AFP)
A US soldier in Iraq. (AFP)
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ISIS Dormant Cells Pave Way for Open US Presence in Iraq

A US soldier in Iraq. (AFP)
A US soldier in Iraq. (AFP)

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari hinted on Monday about the possibility of keeping American troops in Iraq for the long term due to dormant ISIS cells.

“The military intervention of the international coalition in Iraq and the support it offered to the Iraqi government in its war against ISIS were based on conditions that do not violate the country’s sovereignty,” al-Jaafari said.

The US-led international coalition was launched in 2016 to retake ISIS-held regions in Iraq.

The foreign minister said that the presence of this coalition “will continue until dormant ISIS cells currently present in the country are dealt with.”

Fears concerning the security situation in Iraq emerged after the appearance of men from the “White Flags” group in certain Iraqi areas close to Kurdish-majority zones, also driving concerns that the group could become a new version of ISIS, whose military defeat in Iraq was declared last week.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Monday that the focus in the next phase would be directed towards intelligence efforts, a strategy already kicked off by security and military apparatuses.

In Baghdad's district of Bataween, Iraqi security forces arrested around 256 suspects, including some accused of belonging to terrorist cells, according to a statement issued by Iraqi Interior Minister Qasim al-Araji.

Meanwhile, sources close to the Iraqi prime minister said there “is no presence of any US military bases in Iraq, despite the existence of contrary statements concerning this issue.”

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday, Ihsan Al Shameri, the head of the Political Thought Center in Baghdad said that “the presence of US and international coalition advisers was limited in Iraqi military bases, which operate under Iraqi orders.”

In that context, Hisham al-Hashemi, a defense analyst in Baghdad, asserted to Asharq Al-Awsat there were no purely US military bases in Iraq, except those already present in Irbil.

“The US forces in other Iraqi areas operate in joint bases with the Iraqi side, including the international coalition forces, which are responsible for training and supporting the mission of Iraqi forces,” he said.



Displaced Syrians Who Have Returned Home Face a Fragile Future, Says UN Refugees Chief

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (R) meeting with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in the Syrian capital Damascus on June 20, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (R) meeting with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in the Syrian capital Damascus on June 20, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
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Displaced Syrians Who Have Returned Home Face a Fragile Future, Says UN Refugees Chief

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (R) meeting with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in the Syrian capital Damascus on June 20, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (R) meeting with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in the Syrian capital Damascus on June 20, 2025. (SANA / AFP)

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Friday that more than two million Syrian refugees and internally displaced people have returned home since the fall of the government of Bashar al-Assad in December.

Speaking during a visit to Damascus that coincided with World Refugee Day, Grandi described the situation in Syria as “fragile and hopeful” and warned that the returnees may not remain if Syria does not get more international assistance to rebuild its war-battered infrastructure.

“How can we make sure that the return of the Syrian displaced or refugees is sustainable, that people don’t move again because they don’t have a house or they don’t have a job or they don’t have electricity?” Grandi asked a small group of journalists after the visit, during which he met with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and spoke with returning refugees.

“What is needed for people to return, electricity but also schools, also health centers, also safety and security,” he said.

Syria’s near 14-year civil war, which ended last December with the ouster of Assad in a lightning opposition offensive, killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.

Grandi said that 600,000 Syrians have returned to the country since Assad’s fall, and about another 1.5 million internally displaced people returned to their homes in the same period.

However, there is little aid available for the returnees, with multiple crises in the region -- including the new Israel-Iran war -- and shrinking support from donors. The UNHCR has reduced programs for Syrian refugees in neighboring countries, including healthcare, education and cash support for hundreds of thousands in Lebanon.

“The United States suspended all foreign assistance, and we were very much impacted, like others, and also other donors in Europe are reducing foreign assistance,” Grandi said, adding: “I tell the Europeans in particular, be careful. Remember 2015, 2016 when they cut food assistance to the Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, the Syrians moved toward Europe.”

Some have also fled for security reasons since Assad's fall. While the situation has stabilized since then, particularly in Damascus, the new government has struggled to extend its control over all areas of the country and to bring a patchwork of former opposition groups together into a national army.

Grandi said the UNHCR has been in talks with the Lebanese government, which halted official registration of new refugees in 2015, to register the new refugees and “provide them with basic assistance.”

“This is a complex community, of course, for whom the chances of return are not so strong right now,” he said. He said he had urged the Syrian authorities to make sure that measures taken in response to the attacks on civilians “are very strong and to prevent further episodes of violence.”

The Israel-Iran war has thrown further fuel on the flames in a region already dealing with multiple crises. Grandi noted that Iran is hosting millions of refugees from Afghanistan who may now be displaced again.

The UN does not yet have a sense of how many people have fled the conflict between Iran and Israel, he said.

“We know that some Iranians have gone to neighboring countries, like Azerbaijan or Armenia, but we have very little information. No country has asked for help yet,” he said. “And we have very little sense of the internal displacement, because my colleagues who are in Iran - they’re working out of bunkers because of the bombs.”