Baghdad invites new Syrian leader to summit
BAGHDAD
An official invitation to new Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa to attend the upcoming Arab League summit in Baghdad has triggered sharp political divisions within Iraq.
Al-Sharaa took power after leading a lightning rebel offensive that unseated his predecessor, Bashar al-Assad, in December. Since then, he has positioned himself as a statesman aiming to unite and rebuild his country after nearly 14 years of civil war, but his past as a Sunni Islamist militant has left many — including Shiite groups in Iraq — wary.
Formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa joined the ranks of al-Qaida insurgents battling U.S. forces in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and still faces a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges in Iraq.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani confirmed last week that Iraq had extended a formal invitation to al-Sharaa to attend the May 17 summit, following a previously unannounced meeting between the two in Qatar. Al-Sharaa has not confirmed plans to attend.
Iraq, which has strong ties with both the United States and Iran, has sought to position itself as a regional mediator. It hosted talks between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia before they reached a deal to normalize relations.
Many Iraqi and regional stakeholders see the invitation to al-Sharaa as an opportunity to bolster Baghdad’s image as a hub for regional diplomacy.
However, strong opposition to al-Sharaa’s invitation has emerged from powerful Shiite factions aligned with Iran. Tehran, which backed Assad in Syria’s civil war and used Syria as a conduit to smuggle weapons to the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, was widely seen as the biggest loser from Assad’s ouster.
Several Iraqi Shiite militias fought alongside Assad's forces during the civil war that followed his brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011, making al-Sharaa a particularly sensitive figure for them.
Mustafa Sand, a member of parliament from the Coordination Framework — a coalition of Iran-allied factions that brought al-Sudani to power in 2022 — said in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the foreign ministry had reached out to Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council to verify whether an arrest warrant was issued against al-Sharaa and that the council had confirmed the existence of a valid warrant.
A security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly confirmed the existence of the warrant to The Associated Press.
