US Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised Friday to work with Iraq to ensure no resurgence of the Islamic State group after Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow in neighbouring Syria.

On a regional tour devoted to a suddenly-changed Syria, the top US diplomat flew to Baghdad from the Turkish capital Ankara and headed into talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

Blinken said he told Sudani of “our commitment to working with Iraq on security and always working for Iraq’s sovereignty, to make sure that that is strengthened and preserved”.

“I think this is a moment as well for Iraq to reinforce its own sovereignty as well as its stability, security and success going forward,” Blinken said.

He added that “no one knows the importance” more than Iraq of stability in Syria and avoiding the resurgence of Islamic State group (IS) jihadists, also known by the Arabic acronym Daesh.

“We are determined to make sure that Daesh cannot re-emerge,” Blinken said.

“The United States (and) Iraq, together had tremendous success in taking away the territorial caliphate that Daesh had created years ago.”

The Islamic State group (IS) overran large swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in 2014, proclaiming its “caliphate” and launching a reign of terror.

It was defeated in Iraq in 2017 by Iraqi forces backed by a US-led military coalition, and in 2019 lost the last territory it held in Syria to US-backed Kurdish forces.

Iraq is keen to prevent any spread of chaos from Syria, where on Sunday Islamist-led rebels toppled the five-decade rule of the Assad dynasty following a lightning offensive.

Sudani, in his meeting with Blinken, “underscored the necessity of ensuring the representation of all components of the Syrian people in managing the country to bolster its stability,” Sudani’s office said.

He stressed Iraq “expects tangible actions, not just words” from Syria’s transitional authorities, and “emphasised the importance of preventing any aggression on Syrian territories by any party”.

After taking a helicopter into central Baghdad, Blinken also complimented Iraq on a construction boom, saying it showed growing success.

US TROOPS

Iraq’s government has urged respect for the “free will” of all Syrians and the country’s territorial integrity after Assad’s fall.

The deposed Syrian leader hailed from a rival faction of the Baath party of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, ousted in a 2003 US-led invasion.

The United States maintains about 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 more in Syria as part of a campaign to prevent IS resurgence.

President Joe Biden’s administration has agreed with Iraq to end the coalition’s military presence by September 2025 but stopped short of a complete withdrawal of the US forces, whose presence has been opposed by Iran-aligned armed groups in Iraq.

President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month and has long been sceptical of US troop deployments, although it remains unclear whether he would backtrack from Biden’s agreement or change tactics in light of developments in Syria.

Last Saturday, the day before rebels took control of Damascus, Trump on his Truth Social platform called Syria “a mess,” and added: “THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.”

Blinken has pushed for an “inclusive” political process to bring an accountable government to Syria and avoid sectarian bloodletting of the sort seen in Iraq after the fall of Saddam.

In Baghdad, he said he spoke with Sudani about the conviction of many countries that “as Syria transitions from the Assad dictatorship to hopefully a democracy, it does so in a way that… protects all of the minorities in Syria, that produces an inclusive, non-sectarian government and does not become in any way a platform for terrorism”.

Speaking in Jordan on Thursday, Blinken said all regional players he had spoken to “agreed on the need to have a unified approach to advance many of our shared interests” in Syria.

Turkey strongly opposes the US alliance with Syrian Kurdish fighters, who assist the United States with the fight against the Islamic State group but whom Ankara links to outlawed Kurdish separatists at home.

Israel in turn has been pounding Syria, decimating military sites across its historic adversary after a deadly campaign against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, aiming in part to curb the regional influence of Tehran which had allied itself with Assad.

Thousands of jubilant Syrians converged on Damascus’s landmark Umayyad Mosque for Friday prayers, waving opposition flags and chanting — a sight unimaginable a week ago before rebels ousted president Bashar al-Assad.

Families with children mixed with armed and uniformed Islamist fighters to celebrate the first Friday prayers since Assad’s overthrow, later streaming into the Old City’s streets and squares.

The scenes were reminiscent of the early days of the 2011 uprising, when pro-democracy protesters in Syrian cities would take to the streets after Friday prayers — but not in the capital Damascus, long an Assad clan stronghold.

Former rebel fighters allowed women and children to pose with their assault rifles for celebratory photos, as relieved citizens milled around the square before the mosque, a place of worship since the Iron Age and the city’s greatest mosque since the eighth century.

“We are gathering because we’re happy Syria has been freed, we’re happy to have been liberated from the prison in which we lived,” said Nour Thi al-Ghina, 38.

“This is the first time we have converged in such big numbers and the first time we are seeing such an event,” she said, beaming with joy.

“We never expected this to happen.”

Rebel fighter Mohammed Shobek, 30, came to the city with the victorious Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (HTS), and posed for pictures with local children with a rose in the barrel of his Kalashnikov assault rifle.

“We’ve finished the war in Syria and started praying for peace, we started carrying flowers, we started building this country and building it hand in hand,” he told AFP.

In 2011, Assad’s crackdown on peaceful protesters triggered a 13-year civil war that tore Syria apart, killing more than half a million people and displacing millions more.

‘SYRIAN PEOPLE IS ONE’

Exhilarated crowds chanted: “One, one, one, the Syrian people is one!”

Many held the Syrian independence flag, used by the opposition since the uprising began.

Dozens of street vendors around the mosque were selling the three-star flags — which none would dare to raise in government-held areas during Assad’s iron-fisted rule.

Pictures of people who were disappeared or detained in Assad’s prisons hung on the mosque’s outer walls, the phone numbers of relatives inscribed on the images.

At the core of the system Assad inherited from his father Hafez was a brutal complex of prisons and detention centres used to eliminate dissent by jailing those suspected of stepping away from the ruling Baath party line.

War monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in 2022 that more than 100,000 people had died in the prisons since 2011.

Earlier Friday, the leader of the Islamist rebels that took power, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani — who now uses his given name Ahmed al-Sharaa — had urged people to take to the streets to celebrate “the victory of the revolution”.

Last month, rebel forces led by Jolani’s HTS launched a lightning offensive, seizing Damascus and ousting Assad in less than two weeks.

The group has now named one of its own, Mohammad al-Bashir, as interim prime minister in a post-war transitional government until March 1. On Friday he addressed worshippers at the Umayyad Mosque.

‘VICTORY OF THE REVOLUTION’

Omar al-Khaled, 23, said he had rushed from HTS’s northwestern stronghold of Idlib, cut off from government areas for years, to see the capital for the first time in his life.

“It was my dream to come to Damascus,” the tailor said.

“I can’t describe my feelings. Our morale is very high and we hope that Syria will head towards a better future,” he said, adding: “People were stifled… but now the doors have opened to us.”

On Thursday, the interim government vowed to institute the “rule of law” after years of abuses under Assad.

Amani Zanhur, a 42-year-old professor of computer engineering, said many of her students had disappeared in Assad’s prisons and that she was overjoyed to be attending the prayers in the new Syria.

“There can be nothing worse than what was. We cannot fear the situation,” she told AFP, expressing support for a state based on Islamic teachings.

Thousands flocked to the nearby Umayyad Square, raising a huge rebel flag on its landmark sword monument and chanting.

“Let’s not discuss details that might separate us now and focus only on what brings us together: our hatred for Bashar al-Assad,” said Amina Maarawi, 42, an Islamic preacher wearing a white hijab.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has ordered the military to “prepare to remain” throughout the winter in the UN-patrolled buffer zone that is supposed to separate Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights.

Israel seized the demilitarised zone on the strategic plateau on Sunday, just hours after Syrian rebels swept president Bashar al-Assad from power.

The move drew international condemnation including from the United Nations, although close ally the United States on Thursday said it was consistent with Israel’s right to self-defence.

The peacekeeping force UNDOF said in a statement on Friday it had informed Israel it was in “violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement”, referring to the armistice between Syria and Israel that created the buffer zone.

Since Assad’s fall, the Israeli military has also launched hundreds of strikes against Syrian military sites, targeting everything from chemical weapons stores to air defences to prevent them from falling into rebel hands.

The deployment in the buffer zone comes with Israeli forces still withdrawing from southern Lebanon after fighting Hezbollah militants for months and with the war in Gaza against Palestinian militants ongoing.

“Due to the situation in Syria, it is of critical security importance to maintain our presence at the summit of Mount Hermon, and everything must be done to ensure the (army’s) readiness on-site to enable the fighters to stay there despite the challenging weather conditions,” Katz’s spokesman said in a statement on Friday.

‘VACUUM ON ISRAEL’S BORDER’

Israel has said it seized the buffer zone to defend itself.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday that the collapse of Assad’s rule had created a “vacuum on Israel’s border”.

“This deployment is temporary until a force that is committed to the 1974 agreement can be established and security on our border can be guaranteed.”

Israel captured most of the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

It held onto the territory during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and in 1981 annexed the area in a move since recognised only by the United States.

On Thursday, UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned Israel’s seizure of the buffer zone.

Guterres “is deeply concerned by the recent and extensive violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

“The secretary-general is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli air strikes on several locations in Syria.”

Guterres urged the end of “all unauthorised presence in the area of separation and refraining from any action that would undermine the ceasefire and stability in Golan,” Dujarric said.

UNDOF on Friday said its forces “remain at their positions” and “continue to carry out their mandated activities”.

The Israeli military said that troops were conducting “defensive missions” in the buffer and beyond while also “strengthening” a barrier on the armistice line.

UNDOF said the Israeli army has been “constructing counter-mobility obstacles since July 2024”.

‘TEMPTATION TO STAY’

The United States has called for the Israeli incursion to be “temporary” although on Thursday National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the incursion was “logical and consistent with Israel’s right to self-defence”.

Michael Horowitz, an expert on regional geopolitics at the Middle East-based security consultancy Le Beck, said he expected Israeli forces to remain in the zone for several months carrying out “surveillance missions”.

“The duration of the Israeli operation will depend on the stability and intention of the new Syrian regime,” he told AFP.

Although Syria’s new rulers have sent conciliatory messages internationally, Israel is not ready to take any risks, he said.

“There is also the specific question of Mount Hermon, a strategic point as it dominates three countries,” Lebanon, Syria and Israel, Horowitz said.

“In the current chaos, and given the composition of the Israeli government, I believe the temptation will be very strong to stay on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, even in the longer term.”