In August 2013, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that more must be done to prevent arms smuggling between Syria and Iraq, while Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs Hoshyar Zebari confirmed Iraq's commitment “not to provide money, weapons or oil to the Syrian regime.”
Moreover, while Parliamentary Security and Defense Committee MP Hassan Jihad denied in a statement to Al-Monitor any previous discussion by this committee of the subject of smuggling weapons to Syria, MP Mazhar al-Janabi confirmed that the committee had in fact broached the matter a year ago.
Janabi told Al-Monitor, “The Security and Defense Committee summoned the commanders of three military troops and Anbar chief of operations. They were asked whether there was a case of smuggling, to which they answered that these cases are negligible.” Janabi added, “In the event weapons are still smuggled to Syria, this would mean either a lack of interest or ability to preserve the country.”
Syrian writer Dara Abdullah said, “There has been no accurate information about the quantities of weapons smuggled from Iraq to Syria since the start of the Syrian revolution.”
“Just like when the border from Syria into Iraq used to be controlled by the Syrian regime upon the US invasion, the border from Iraq to Syria is now open and freely accessible under [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri] al-Maliki’s control.” Abdullah, a writer opposed to the Assad regime, warned that “the most dangerous thing is not the entry of arms to Syria, but the armed sectarian militias.” He continued, “These militias have played a major role in the sectarianization of the Syrian conflict, increasing civil congestion and turning the Syrian revolution from a social movement into a civil sectarian conflict.”
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