Many Iraqis Unhappy With Islamist Syrian President’s Invite to Arab League Summit in Baghdad

Sharaa was formerly a top figure in al-Qaeda in Iraq

Next month, Iraq will host the Arab League’s 34th summit in Baghdad. This was seen as an exciting opportunity for Iraq after the protracted US invasion and occupation, to finally reclaim some regional influence for themselves.

It’s become a source of no small amount of controversy inside Iraq, however, after the announcement Wednesday by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani that the president of neighboring Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has been invited.

It’s a sore spot for many Iraqis after decades of war, because Sharaa was formerly a high ranking member of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), actively participating in a violent insurgency against the Iraqis.

HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa | Image from Reuters

Sharaa was well known as part of AQI in his early insurgency days, and was said to be a close associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the AQI founder and leader.

During his time in Iraq, Sharaa was captured by the Iraqis at least once, and held in prison under the name Amjad Muzaffar Hussein al-Naimi. He spent five years in various prison facilities, and was released in 2011, roughly coinciding with the Syrian Civil War’s beginning.

Sharaa was then tasked by al-Qaeda’s international leader (Ayman al-Zawahiri) with forming an al-Qaeda affiliate for Syria. He did so, creating a group which was called Jabhat al-Nusra. During this time he was known by a new nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

Jabhat al-Nusra was also a massive terrorist organization within Syria, vying with ISIS for power along with aiming to oust the Assad government. In 2017, Sharaa renamed the organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Based in Syria’s Idlib Governorate, HTS held substantial territory, with Sharaa also trying to merge other Islamist groups with them, often violently trying to incorporate them into his faction.

In 2024, heavily backed by Turkey, the HTS struck out from Idlib toward the Aleppo Governorate, quickly seizing a lot of territory and marching southward. Within weeks, they had seized Damascus outright, and Sharaa was named the “interim” leader of Syria, a position he continues to hold.

Sharaa’s history with al-Qaeda is a matter of considerable concern given he’s now the ruler of Syria, and the massacre of members of the Alawite minority last month only adds to that. In and of itself that would probably be cause for concern in Iraq too, which is dominated by Shi’ite groups.

But Sharaa publicly having been directly part of AQI and engaged in terrorist activities inside Iraq in recent memory adds a lot to this issue, with many Iraqi MPs warning Prime Minister Sudani that Sharaa’s history makes him very much not welcome.

MP Falih al-Khazali warned “we will not accept Baghdad becoming a safe heaven for the terrorist al-Jolani. The blood of the martyrs is still fresh.” Excluding Sharaa from the summit likely would’ve caused problems for Iraq too, but his invitation is likely to remain an issue until the summit is over.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.