The U.S. State Department said that on January 25 Secretary of State Rubio held a phone call with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al‑Sudani to discuss relocating and incarcerating members of the so‑called Islamic State (IS) inside Iraq. The conversation, reported by Chinese state media, followed fresh instability in northeastern Syria — where thousands of suspected IS fighters and family members have been held in camps and makeshift detention facilities since the group's territorial defeat.
The move under discussion would shift responsibility for a portion of IS detainees away from Kurdish-run facilities in Syria and into Iraqi secure sites. For Washington, which has supported and coordinated with Kurdish authorities and Iraqi partners on counter‑terrorism for years, arranging transfers reflects an effort to reduce immediate security risks posed by deteriorating conditions in Syria and potential mass escapes or renewed IS activity.
Transferring detainees to Iraq carries practical, legal and political complications. Iraq already holds large numbers of IS suspects from operations on its own soil and faces capacity constraints, contested detention processes and concerns about due process and mistreatment; importing more detainees will add strain and could inflame domestic political sensitivities about sectarian justice and reconciliation.
Regionally, the proposal risks new friction. Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria may resist losing custody of prisoners, Damascus could view transfers as an erosion of Syrian sovereignty if undertaken without its consent, and neighbouring states — notably Turkey and Iran — will calculate the move through the lenses of security and influence. For the United States and Iraq, the discussions signal an attempt at burden‑sharing but also expose how fragile the post‑ISIS order remains in a part of the Middle East marked by competing authorities and frequent volatility.