BAGHDAD: Iraq’s Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has approved the reopening on Monday of the Qaim border-crossing with Syria, state news agency INA said, the latest sign of normalization between Baghdad and Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.
The crossing will be reopened for travelers and trade, INA reported on Friday, citing Iraq’s border agency chief.
The western Anbar province town of Qaim, 300 kilometers west of Baghdad, was recaptured from Daesh in November 2017 and was the group’s last bastion in Iraq to fall.
It borders the Syrian town of Albu Kamal, which was also a Daesh stronghold. The towns lie on a strategic supply route and the crossing between them had only been open for government or military traffic.
Daesh in 2014 seized vast swathes of land in both Iraq and Syria, declaring a caliphate across both countries. Iraq declared victory over the group in 2017 and it lost its last territory in Syria earlier this year.
Iraq’s government recently called for the reinstatement of Syria’s membership of the Arab League, which was suspended in 2011 over its crackdown on protesters at the start of the civil war.
Iraq to open border-crossing with Syria on Monday
Iraq to open border-crossing with Syria on Monday
- The crossing will be reopened for travelers and trade
- The western Anbar province town of Qaim was recaptured from Daesh in November 2017
Tunisia court reduces ex-PM’s jail term over terror charges
- Last year, the former premier was sentenced to 34 years in prison.
- An overnight ruling from an appeals court reduced the 70-year-old’s term to 24 years, his defense lawyer Bouthelja said
TUNIS: A Tunisian appeals court has reduced the prison sentence of former prime minister Ali Larayedh by a decade to 24 years after he was found guilty of terrorism charges, his lawyer said Friday.
Since his arrest in late 2022, Larayedh has denied the charges that he helped send militant fighters to Iraq and Syria, and his lawyers have branded the case as politically motivated.
Last year, the former premier was sentenced to 34 years in prison. However, an overnight ruling from an appeals court reduced the 70-year-old’s term to 24 years, his defense lawyer Oussama Bouthelja told AFP.
Larayedh was prime minister from 2013 to 2014. He was a leader in the Islamist party Ennahdha, which briefly governed Tunisia following a popular uprising in 2011 that launched the Arab Spring.
He is a critic of President Kais Saied.
Others prosecuted in the case included former security officials and a spokesman for Ansar Al-Sharia, a group Tunisia designated a terrorist organization in 2013 while Larayedh was prime minister.
The appeals court reduced the sentences of several others in the case, with prison terms now ranging from three to 24 years.
Ennahdha played a key role in Tunisian politics for years before its leader Rached Ghannouchi was hit with multiple prison terms, which include a 22-year sentence on charges of plotting against state security.
Larayedh had already spent 15 years in prison, including 10 in solitary confinement, for plotting against the state under longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was toppled during the Arab Spring.
The UN said about 5,500 Tunisians fought with militant groups including the Daesh in Iraq, Syria and Libya between 2011 and 2016.
