UN envoy says Iraq and Syrian conflicts merging
18 July 2013 11:20 PM GMT
Iraq’s escalating violence can no longer be separated from the civil war in neighboring Syria because ‘the battlefields are merging,’ the UN envoy to Iraq warned.
Martin Kobler told the UN Security Council that Iraqi armed groups have an increasingly active presence in Syria.
As a result, he said, the Syrian conflict is no longer just spilling over into Iraq, but Iraqis are reportedly taking arms against each other inside Syria, he said.
‘These countries are interrelated,’ Kobler stressed. ‘Iraq is the fault line between the Shia and the Sunni world and everything which happens in Syria, of course, has repercussions on the political landscape in Iraq.’
Martin Kobler told the UN Security Council that Iraqi armed groups have an increasingly active presence in Syria.
As a result, he said, the Syrian conflict is no longer just spilling over into Iraq, but Iraqis are reportedly taking arms against each other inside Syria, he said.
‘These countries are interrelated,’ Kobler stressed. ‘Iraq is the fault line between the Shia and the Sunni world and everything which happens in Syria, of course, has repercussions on the political landscape in Iraq.’
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