Iraq seeks to host next anti-ISIS coalition meeting

NEWSROOM — Iraq proposed hosting the next meeting of the international coalition against the Islamic State group, its Foreign Ministry said, as Baghdad defended a temporary decision to transfer some ISIS detainees from Syria into Iraqi detention centers in coordination with the coalition and U.S. Central Command.

The ministry said Iraq raised the proposal during a coalition meeting held Monday in Riyadh and led by Deputy Foreign Minister for multilateral and legal affairs Ambassador Shorsh Khalid Saeed. In the closing session, Saeed said the Iraqi government suggested Baghdad as the venue for the next meeting and that participating countries welcomed the proposal, according to the ministry statement.

Iraq told the meeting it had approved transferring a number of ISIS detainees into Iraq as “an urgent preventive security measure that does not tolerate delay,” the statement said. Iraq also stressed that it “categorically rejects” becoming “a permanent warehouse for foreign terrorists,” calling on concerned countries to retrieve their nationals who are members of the group.

Lt. Gen. Qais al-Mohammadawi of the Joint Operations Command said competent Iraqi courts have begun investigating the individuals received and that anyone who committed crimes on Iraqi territory “will be tried in accordance with Iraqi law,” according to the statement.

The Iraqi delegation also called on the coalition and the international community to intensify efforts to search for Yazidi abductees and others taken by ISIS, saying their number exceeds 2,500 people, and said it welcomed a comprehensive ceasefire agreement between the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces that includes integrating self-administration institutions into Syrian state institutions, the ministry said.

In recent weeks, Iraqi officials have framed the transfers as a security step following concerns over detention facilities in northeastern Syria. The Supreme Judicial Council has said: “The task of investigating the suspects transferred from Syria to Iraq was assigned to the First Karkh Investigative Court, which is the court specialized in terrorism cases.” Government spokesperson Basem al-Awadi has described the transfers as “a preemptive step to defend Iraqi national security.”

Iraq’s Security Media Cell has said the country received 2,250 ISIS members from Syria by land and air and placed them in “highly secured official centers,” while cell chief Lt. Gen. Saad Maan said, “The firm principle is to try all those involved in committing crimes against Iraqis and affiliated with the ISIS terrorist organization before competent Iraqi courts.”