ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein raised the issue of Islamic State (ISIS) prisoners transferred from Syria to Iraq during a meeting with US representatives in Washington, stressing the need for international cooperation to repatriate the detainees to their countries of origin.

Iraq agreed to take in over 5,700 ISIS prisoners from its neighbor after the turmoil caused by a January Syrian government offensive in Rojava (northeast Syria) raised fears that detention centers, previously operated by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), would be unable to maintain security amid the conflict.

Hussein held a meeting with US Representative Elissa Slotkin in Washington, discussing the issue of the detainees and “the importance of strengthening international cooperation in addressing this issue, including facilitating the repatriation of nationals of the countries concerned,” according to a statement by the Iraqi foreign ministry.

The US military and the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS were heavily involved in facilitating the transfers in January.

Interrogations of the prisoners ended in early September, which found that the detainees include people from 67 nationalities, including 16 Arab countries, 19 European countries, and 32 other foreign nationalities, with 3,497 of the prisoners being Syrian and 474 Iraqi.

Iraqi authorities have previously stressed that the presence of the prisoners in Iraq is not permanent, and repeatedly called on countries to repatriate their nationals who joined the group in Syria.

The two sides also stressed the development of security cooperation between Baghdad and Washington and “moving it towards a preventive approach, as well as supporting training programmes for the Iraqi armed forces and strengthening the capabilities of security institutions.”

They further discussed the “importance of supporting the Iraqi Government’s efforts to uphold the rule of law and place weapons under the control of the state, in a manner that contributes to enhancing security and stability in Iraq.”

The meeting comes days after the US-led coalition completed its withdrawal from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, following years of joint military cooperation in the fight against ISIS.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has set June 30, 2027 as the new deadline for disarming all non-state armed groups in the country, extending the previous September 30 deadline, which would have coincided with the end of the global coalition’s mission in the country.

ISIS took control of swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014, announcing its self-proclaimed caliphate with the city of Mosul as its capital. The group were territorially defeated with assistance from the US-led coalition forces in Iraq by 2017 and in Syria by 2019.