Al-Sharaa calls for tightening of Iraqi-Syrian ties with the departure of US forces Syrian leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa presented a "historic opportunity" for Iraq and Syria, and determined it as an end to decades of conflict: "Enough with the wars. enough arguments. " In an interview with Iraq's Dijala TV on Tuesday, he arranged his terrorist past as a struggle against the American occupation: "My sense of solidarity took me to Iraq to defend them and confront the American Israel at that time. That was my main motivation. He presented Syria as Iraq's Mediterranean outlet, noting over 100,000 transit trucks between the countries in the past six months and the link between the ports of Faw and Tartus. substack | chat.