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Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa was given a pointed piece of “advice” by the Iraqi government to stay away from Lebanon, Al-Akhbar reported on July 18.
The Iraqi warning comes as the United States and Saudi Arabia keep pressing Syria to take an active role against Hezbollah.
According to the Lebanese news outlet, Iraqi officials told Damascus that “any Syrian involvement in the Lebanese arena would have direct repercussions on Syria itself,” and made clear that Baghdad would not simply watch from the sidelines “should the Shia community in Lebanon or Hezbollah face any threat originating from Syrian territory, Iraqi resistance factions will not stand idle.”
The line drawn by Baghdad was explicit: “every Syrian step toward Lebanon could be followed by an Iraqi step toward Syria.”
The officials went further, arguing that any Syrian move in this direction would open the door to security and regional fallout that works against Syria’s own interests, undercutting both its push for internal stability and its efforts to rebuild ties with its neighbors.
Sharaa reportedly told the Iraqis that Washington had already asked him directly to intervene in Lebanon and take a stand against Hezbollah, and that he had turned the request down. He insisted Damascus has no appetite for wading into Lebanese affairs or reviving the old pattern of Syrian interference there, and that keeping Syria stable and avoiding new fronts is his leadership’s priority right now.
Despite this, there have been a notable Syrian military buildup along the border with Lebanon, mainly close to Hezbollah’s strongholds in Baalbek-Hermel and Beqaa.
The officials also told Al-Akhbar that Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi plans to travel to Damascus later this month for talks with Sharaa on the future of relations between the two countries, along with a set of religious and political matters.
Economics will be on the table too. Al-Zaidi is expected to raise supplying Syria with Iraqi oil, restarting the pipeline that feeds the Baniyas refinery, and opening Iraq’s market to Syrian goods.
Earlier in the week, Iraq and Syria signed a memorandum of understanding to restore and modernize the pipeline, with backing from the U.S.
Al-Zaidi is also expected to bring up the situation of Syria’s Shia community, pressing for guarantees to protect their rights and secure religious sites, chief among them the Sayyida Zainab shrine, and to discuss ways of giving Syria’s different communities a bigger role in state institutions.
The U.S. has been increasing pressure on Syria over an intervention in Lebanon. Earlier in the week, President Donald Trump renewed calls for a Syrian intervention, saying that Sharaa would “take care” of Hezbollah in a different way from Israel.
Al-Akhbar noted that such an intervention would be very hard to pull off without clear cover from Turkey, and that cover isn’t there yet.
Ankara is wary of any arrangement that ends up strengthening Israeli influence in Syria and Lebanon, according to the report.
Observers cited by the outlet noted that “the Iraqi message cannot be separated from the regional climate that followed the mass funeral procession in Iraq for the late Sayyed [Ali] Khamenei,” which many read as a sign of just how much mobilization and solidarity exists across Shia communities in the region right now.
Seen through that lens, any Syrian move against Hezbollah “would not be seen as a purely Lebanese or Syrian matter, but would risk widening the circle of confrontation to include new arenas across the region.”
Al-Akhbar’s report indicate that Iraqi armed factions loyal to Iran have made the decision to intervene against Syria if it attacks Hezbollah. The Islamic Republic could also get involved. In fact, just a day before the report was released an Iranian strike hit a former U.S. base in the Syrian area of al-Tanf. A weapon shipment bound for Hezbollah was seized there by Syrian security forces earlier in the month.
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