No arms sent into Syria through Iraq: Maliki

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says no military materials are being smuggled across his country’s borders into conflict-stricken Syria.

“We stress that no weapons go to Syria via Iraq,” he told reporters in Prague on Thursday.

“We have placed the army on our border to prevent the delivery of weapons to Syria,” Maliki stated.

The Iraqi prime minister also called on countries supplying arms to Syrian insurgents to “look for positive solutions” instead.

“All weapons supplied are used against the Syrian people, and this is bad for the entire region,” Maliki said.

Last week, Iraq forced a Syria-bound cargo plane to land and searched for weapons but allowed it to continue as no prohibited items were found.

On September 21, Baghdad denied permission for another aircraft to cross its airspace on its way to Syria over suspicions it would carry arms there.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011.

Damascus says ‘outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists’ are the driving factor behind the unrest and deadly violence while the opposition accuses the security forces of being behind the killings.

The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country and accuses Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey of arming the opposition.