DAMASCUS (The Thursday Times) — Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi arrived in Damascus on Wednesday for talks with President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the first visit by an Iraqi prime minister to Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, as Baghdad looks for new oil export routes with the Strait of Hormuz shut by the Iran war.
Al-Sharaa received al-Zaidi at Damascus International Airport, Syrian state media said. The two leaders discussed exporting Iraqi oil through Syria’s Baniyas terminal, increasing trade and joint work on agriculture, according to the official Iraqi News Agency.
“The Iraqi and Syrian people are one people in two countries,” al-Zaidi said, calling for closer economic, social and security cooperation and for the two governments to “unify positions on regional and international issues”.
A pipeline around Hormuz
Iraq has begun exporting limited quantities of crude through Syria since the US-led war on Iran closed the Gulf route for most of its oil. In July the two countries signed agreements to revive the Haditha–Baniyas pipeline, with a memorandum of understanding with a consortium that includes the US oil major Chevron. Al-Sharaa has also promoted a land link between Iraq’s Grand Faw port and Syria’s Tartus.
Borders and detainees
Security was also on the table. Al-Sharaa said the border between the two countries was now secure and that the threat from ISIS had fallen, and backed al-Zaidi’s drive to bring weapons under state control, Asharq Al-Awsat reported. Iraq, which holds ISIS detainees transferred from Syria, agreed with Damascus to set up a programme to review their cases.
Baghdad kept its distance from al-Sharaa, a former jihadist commander, after he took power in December 2024, wary of his past and of the Iran-aligned armed factions within Iraq. The two men first met in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
