United Nations Security Council unanimously adopts resolution renewing the mandate of UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) for a final 19-month period until 31 December 2025; all 15 members voted in favour.
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The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) voted unanimously on May 31 to end the United Nations (UN) political mission in Iraq established in 2003 following the United States-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein to coordinate post-conflict humanitarian and reconstruction efforts, and to help restore a representative government in the country.

The Iraqi government asked the council in a May 8 letter to wrap up the mission by the end of 2025 and that’s what the resolution does: It extends the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, known as UNAMI, for a final 19 months until December 31, 2025 when all its work will cease.

The U.S.-sponsored resolution asks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to prepare “a transition and liquidation plan” in consultation with the Iraqi government by December 31, 2024, so UNAMI can start transferring its tasks and withdrawing staff and assets.

The council said it supports Iraq’s continuing stabilisation efforts, including its ongoing fight against the Islamic State group and al-Qaida extremists and their affiliates.

In 2014, the Islamic State group declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria and attracted tens of thousands of supporters from around the world. The extremists were defeated by a U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, but its sleeper cells remain in both countries.

Iraq is also seeking to wind down the military coalition formed to fight the IS. The roughly 2,500 U.S. troops are scattered around the country, largely in military installations in Baghdad and in the north. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has contended that the Iraqi security forces are capable of dealing with the remaining IS cells in the country and the coalition’s presence is no longer needed.

Mr. Al-Sudani’s office expressed its “welcome and appreciation” for the Security Council vote and said in a statement that the council decision “came as a result of the tangible progress that Iraq is witnessing at various levels”.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said secretary-general Guterres and UNAMI are “fully committed” to fulfilling the tasks in the resolution and “the United Nations remains strongly committed to supporting Iraq in its aspirations for a peaceful and secure future”.

Mr. Guterres notes “significant achievements” in Iraq since UNAMI was established in August 2003, Mr. Dujarric said, pointing to the mission’s assistance in advancing an inclusive political dialogue in the country, holding elections, promoting accountability, protecting human rights and coordinating the return and reintegration of people who are displaced within the country.

The resolution adopted on May 31 to close the UNAMI mission expresses support for Iraq’s reform efforts aimed at fighting corruption, respecting and protecting human rights, delivering essential services to its people, creating jobs and diversifying the economy.

It asks the secretary-general to streamline UNAMI’s tasks ahead of the mission’s closure to focus on providing advice, support and technical assistance to the government to strengthen preparations for free elections, including for the federal Parliament and for the Parliament in the Kurdistan region.

It also authorises UNAMI to facilitate progress toward finally resolving outstanding issues between Iraq and Kuwait, stemming from Saddam Hussein’s invasion of its smaller neighbour in August 1990.

In addition, the resolution says UNAMI should help with the return of internally displaced Iraqis and those in Syria, with providing health care and other services and with economic development. And it also authorises the mission to “promote accountability and the protection of human rights, and judicial and legal reform”.

U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood welcomed the resolution’s unanimous adoption and plans for an orderly wind-down of UNAMI.

“We all recognise that Iraq has changed dramatically in recent years and UNAMI’s mission needed to be realigned as part of our commitment to fostering a secure, stable and sovereign Iraq,” he told the council.

Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva stressed that what was important for Moscow in voting for the resolution was that the United States took into account the priorities Iraq wanted UNAMI to focus on in its final months.

“We are convinced that in the 20 years since its establishment UNAMI has fully realised its potential to assist in the restoration of Iraqi statehood and that the people of Iraq are now ready to assume full responsibility for the country’s political future,” she said. “We express our firm support for Iraq sovereignty and oppose any interference in the country’s internal affairs. That is an imperative.”

At least five rockets were launched from Iraq’s town of Zummar towards a U.S. military base in northeastern Syria on April 21, two Iraqi security sources told Reuters.

The attack against U.S. forces is the first since early February when Iranian-backed groups in Iraq stopped their attacks against U.S. troops.

The attack comes one day after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani returned from a visit to the United States and met with President Joe Biden at the White House.

Two security sources and a senior army officer said a rocket launcher fixed on the back of a small truck had been parked in Zummar border town with Syria.

The military official said the truck caught fire with an explosion from unfired rockets at the same time as warplanes were in the sky.

“We can’t confirm that the truck was bombed by U.S. warplanes unless we investigate it,” said a military official on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the incident.

Iraqi security forces were deployed in the area and launched a hunt for the perpetrators who fled the area using another vehicle, said a security official who is based in the town of Zummar.

The Iraqi Security Medica Cell, an official body responsible for disseminating security information, said in a statement that Iraqi forces had launched “a wide-ranging search and inspection operation” targeting the perpetrators near the Syrian border, pledging to bring them to justice.

An army officer said the truck was seized for further investigation and initial investigation shows that it was destroyed by an air strike.

“We are communicating with the coalition forces in Iraq to share information on this attack,” the officer added.

The attacks came one day after a huge blast at a military base in Iraq early on April 20y killed a member of an Iraqi security force that includes Iran-backed groups. The force commander said it was an attack while the army said it was investigating and there were no warplanes in the sky at the time.

Smoke rises from the Iraqi Kurdistan headquarters of the Kurdish Democratic Birthday party of Iran, later Iran’s Modern Guards’ accident at the outskirts of Kirkuk, Iraq September 28, 2022.
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Iran and Iraq have reached an commitment to disarm participants of Iranian Kurdish dissident teams primarily based in northern Iraq and relocate their participants from their wave bases, officers from the 2 nations stated on August 28.

Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman for Iran’s Overseas Ministry, stated in a information briefing on August 28 that the Iraqi executive had assuredly “to disarm the armed terrorist groups stationed in Iraq’s territory by September 19, and then, evacuate and transfer them from their military bases to camps designated by the Iraqi government.”

He added that the cut-off date would now not be prolonged and that time family members between the 2 nations are “entirely friendly and warm … the presence of terrorists in the northern region of Iraq is an unpleasant stain on mutual ties.”

Iran has periodically introduced moves focused on participants of the Kurdistan Democratic Birthday party in Iran, or KDPI, and alternative Iranian Kurdish dissident teams primarily based in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish area akin the border with Iran.

An Iraqi executive reliable, who spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of he used to be now not licensed to talk to the media, showed the commitment used to be signed between the 2 nations and stated the central executive in Baghdad is “working as quickly as possible” to relocate the teams with the benevolence of government from the Kurdish regional executive in Irbil and Sulaimaniyah.

He declined to provide the precise location to which the disarmed militants could be moved, however stated it’ll be throughout the Iraqi Kurdish area. He stated they “will have a camp to live in and will be without arms.”

Other Iranian dissident teams in Iraq are aligned with each and every of the 2 primary Iraqi Kurdish events – the Kurdistan Democratic Birthday party, with its seat of energy in Irbil, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan birthday celebration, whose stronghold is in Suleimaniyah – and are at odds with each and every alternative in addition to with Iran.

“Previously Sulaimaniyah would accuse Irbil of working with these groups, and Erbil would accuse Sulaimaniyah of working with them, but as a central government we agreed to relocate them,” the Iraqi reliable stated. “We are trying as hard as possible for this to take place on Sept. 19.”

Iraqi High Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani got here to energy utmost month by the use of a coalition of Iranian-backed events and is clear as near to Iran, despite the fact that he has additionally tried to assemble ties with america and Turkey.