Iraq Starts Repatriating ISIS Families from Al-Hol

A general view of al-Hol camp in Hasakah, northeastern Syria. (Reuters)
A general view of al-Hol camp in Hasakah, northeastern Syria. (Reuters)
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Iraq Starts Repatriating ISIS Families from Al-Hol

A general view of al-Hol camp in Hasakah, northeastern Syria. (Reuters)
A general view of al-Hol camp in Hasakah, northeastern Syria. (Reuters)

Iraqi MP Sherwan Aldubardany said that a number of ISIS families from Al-Hol camp arrived in Mosul, northern Iraq, amid mounting concerns that some ISIS family members could be a “time bomb" that jeopardizes the country’s security.

In his statements on Wednesday, Aldubardany said that secured buses were sent by the Ministry of Migration and Displaced to transfer the families to the south of Mosul through Sinjar.

For his part, Iraqi MP Ahmed al-Jabouri described transferring the ISIS family members from Syria to Iraq as a “disaster”.

Jabouri told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that this move is a time bomb, reiterating previous warnings of the dangers of this decision.

Available data shows that up to 100 families will arrive in Iraq, out of 30,000 Iraqi persons present in the camp.

The camp hosts various nationalities, including Iraqis from several provinces such as Nineveh, Anbar, Babel, Kirkuk, Salaheddine, and Diyala.

In the same context, strategic expert, Dr. Moataz Mohieddin told Asharq Al-Awsat that the camp has tens of thousands of displaced. A great number of them are Iraqi women and children, he stressed.

There are up to 40,000 Iraqis and around 10,000 families from different origins in the camp who live amid an poor security and lack of international supervision.



Iran FM to Visit Syria, Türkiye as Tehran, Moscow Back Damascus Regime against Opposition Advances

 Opposition fighters step on a picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo, Syria, late Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP)
Opposition fighters step on a picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo, Syria, late Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP)
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Iran FM to Visit Syria, Türkiye as Tehran, Moscow Back Damascus Regime against Opposition Advances

 Opposition fighters step on a picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo, Syria, late Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP)
Opposition fighters step on a picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo, Syria, late Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP)

Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araqchi will visit Damascus on Sunday, before visiting Türkiye as part of a regional tour, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told state media on Saturday.

Earlier, Araqchi and his Russian counterpart voiced support for Syria on during a major attack by opposition groups, Iranian state media reported.  

Araqchi told Russia's Sergei Lavrov in a phone call that the attacks were part of an Israeli-US plan to destabilize the region, state media said.  

According to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry about the call, both sides "expressed extreme concern about the dangerous escalation of the situation in Syria due to the terrorist offensive by armed groups in the Aleppo and Idlib provinces".  

The ministers agreed on the need to intensify joint efforts aimed at stabilizing the situation in Syria.  

Iran's foreign ministry also condemned what it called "aggression by terrorist elements" against its consulate in Syria's city of Aleppo during the current opposition advances, Iranian state media reported.  

"The consul-general and all members of the consulate of Iran in Aleppo are in good health," spokesperson Baghaei told state media.  

Earlier on Saturday, Russia's Lavrov spoke on the matter with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan.  

For his part, Fidan spoke by phone with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Saturday to discuss the situation in Syria, Turkish Foreign Ministry sources said.  

He also spoke with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.