A possible visit by Syria’s new transitional president, Ahmad al Sharaa, is causing controversy in Iraq. Several key Shiite political and militia leaders have come out against the visit and called on Sharaa to be arrested, accusing him of committing crimes as an insurgent in Iraq in the early 2000s.
Sharaa was a member of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and later returned to Syria at the request of AQI to lead the Al Nusrah Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria. Al Qaeda in Iraq conducted numerous terror attacks against US forces, Iraqi security forces, and Iraqi civilians, including a bombing campaign targeting Shiites that was designed to stoke sectarian conflict.
Sharaa, who went by the nom de guerre Mohammad al Jolani, was named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US State Department in 2013, which noted that he “publicly pledged allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qa’ida’s leader.” As the leader of Al Nusrah in Syria, Sharaa engineered the group’s re-branding into Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), a US-designated terrorist group that led the overthrow of Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad in December 2024. Since then, Sharaa has been named Syria’s transitional president and has attempted to engage with the international community as a moderate figure.
On April 20, Iran’s state-run Press TV published an article stating, “The leader of Iraq’s Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq anti-terror resistance group [Qais Khazali] has warned that Syria’s self-proclaimed president Abu Mohammed al-Jolani can be arrested upon his arrival in Baghdad due to an active arrest warrant against him.” Qais Khazali, the secretary-general of the pro-Iranian group that is part of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, wrote on social media that a visit by Sharaa would be “premature as it may lead to legal repercussions if the law is enforced and he is arrested by security forces, given the existence of an active arrest warrant against him.”
Notably, the Press TV report refers to Sharaa by his former nom de guerre, Jolani. It also refers to Khazali, who has been sanctioned by the US, as an “anti-terror resistance group” leader, showing that Iran’s state media supports Khazali’s position.
Khazali’s statements came three days after Sharaa met Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al Sudani for the first time on April 17 in Doha, Qatar. The meeting is part of a wider process of engagement between Iraq and Syria. During the era of the Assad regime, many Iraqi militias linked to the PMF operated in Syria as part of Iran’s backing of Assad. When the Assad regime fled, these groups returned to Iraq via the Euphrates River Valley and through areas in which they held influence near the Syrian border town of Albukamal. Khazali is also one of the outspoken Iraqi militia leaders who, at the end of March, accused Israel of playing a role in “dividing” Syria after the fall of Assad.
The attacks on Sharaa by Khazali are part of an emerging campaign in Iraq against the Syrian leader. Rayan al Kildani, a Christian Iraqi who leads a pro-Iranian militia and political party and is sanctioned by the US Treasury, has also accused Sharaa of crimes in Iraq. In addition, the Dawa political party of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki slammed Sharaa.
The Iraqi website Amwaj.media noted on April 22 that “Iraq’s premier faces a domestic political firestorm after having invited Syria’s president to attend the upcoming Arab League summit in Baghdad. Dozens of Iraqi lawmakers are mobilizing to block the move.” The report said that Iraqi member of parliament Yousef al Kalabi claimed that permitting Sharaa to come to Iraq was “a betrayal of the memory of Iraqis who suffered under terrorism.”
A second Iraqi parliamentarian, Saud al Saedi, told The National that he “had received details from the Interior Ministry [of Iraq] on cases against [Sharaa] over his role with Al Qaeda, as well as related intelligence reports.” Saedi also requested legal action against Sharaa, a call reflected in a growing number of similar reports about the potential visit. These requests to arrest the Syrian leader took place as new leaked documents appeared on social media detailing Sharaa’s detention at Camp Bucca in Iraq from 2005 to 2011.
In the wake of the rhetoric against Sharaa in Iraq, a high-level Iraqi delegation went to Syria on April 25. The delegation discussed restoring an oil pipeline to Syria and reportedly touched on security issues. Syrian state media noted that “Sharaa, received on Friday an Iraqi delegation, led by Hamid al-Shatri, Head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.” Thus, despite the controversy surrounding a potential visit by Sharaa to Iraq, Iraq-Syria relations continued to increase between the Sudani-Sharaa meeting in Doha on April 17 and the delegation’s trip to Damascus on April 25.
