ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran, Iraq and Syria have agreed on a security forum in Baghdad where they hope to close ranks in the fight against terrorism, extremism and Israel, Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazeli announced Monday.
“I hope this forum becomes a beginning for the unity and cooperation of Islamic countries in the region who have the same belief and that we continue with more meetings,” Fazeli was quoted as saying by the Iranian media.
The minister, who did not specify a date for the expected meeting, said that Iran, Iraq and Syria stand in the face of Israel, terrorism and violent extremism.
These countries, he said, “Would expand their cooperation and find ways to work together.”
Iran is currently helping Iraq’s Shiite militia with arms and direct military support against the Islamic State (ISIS), while hundreds of Iranian special forces are believed to be fighting alongside Syrian troops against rebel groups.
Fazeli said that Syria’s visiting State Minister Muhammad al-Shaar would attend the forum. He said the Syrian minister, who is in Tehran, had signed “further security and military agreements” with Iran.
Iran’s ISNA news agency quoted Fazeli as saying that security officials from Tehran and Damascus will be setting their newly-signed agreements into motion.
In its annual terrorism report this month Washington accused Iran of prolonging the civil war in Syria and of supporting militia groups in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Iran blames the 2003 US invasion of Iraq for the bloodshed and mess in the region. It points to recent victories by ISIS, despite nearly a year of US-led bombing of the militants, as proof that Washington’s policy in Iraq is a failure.
