Syrian regime leader Bashar Assad has allowed Iraqi forces to strike ISIS inside Syria without waiting for authorization from Damascus, said SANA state media on Sunday.
An Iraqi government source said that Iraqi fighter jets could now enter Syria’s airspace and strike ISIS without waiting for permission from the regime, reported Russia Today.
Baghdad has to only inform Syrian authorities of their activity, it explained.
Iraqi warplanes and artillery have in the past pounded ISIS positions inside Syria after getting the green light from Syrian authorities.
The extremists have been defeated in Iraq but still hold a small area in Syria close to the Iraqi border.
On Saturday Assad received a letter from Iraq's Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi calling for both countries' coordination in "fighting terrorism."
President Donald Trump announced earlier this month that the US will withdraw all of its 2,000 forces in Syria. The main US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has expressed concerns that the US plans to pull out could lead to the revival of ISIS saying that the extremists have not been defeated yet in Syria.
In Washington, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he is going to encourage Trump to sit down with generals and reconsider pulling troops from Syria.
"Slow this down, make sure that we get it right, make sure ISIS never comes back," Graham said on CNN. "Don't turn Syria over to the Iranians.”
Graham said that it's possible for the US to reduce its footprint in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, and that he supports the goal of having allies "do more and pay more." But he added that he also sees the US military playing a role in all three countries for "a while to come."
