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Iraq’s prime minister held talks Sunday with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus during the first trip of its kind to the war-torn country since the 12-year conflict began. Iraq and Syria have had close relations for years even after many Arab countries withdrew their ambassadors for Damascus and Syria’s membership in the 22-member Arab League was suspended because of the crackdown on protesters in 2011. Assad received Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who was heading a high-ranking delegation, at the presidential palace in Damascus. They discussed mutual relations and cooperation between the two neighboring countries among other issues, according to the office of Syria’s president. Al-Sudani’s office said in a statement that talks revolved around ways of expanding cooperation in the fields of trade, economy, transportation, tourism, how to combat climate change and collaboration to fight terrorism. Security cooperation against extremist groups was likely to be on top of the two-day visit's agenda. The two countries, where Iran enjoys wide influence, have a joint 600 kilometers-long (373 miles) border. In June 2014, the Islamic State group declared the establishment of a self-styled “caliphate,” a traditional model of Islamic rule, in wide areas under its control in Iraq and Syria. After a yearslong campaign that left tens of thousands dead in both countries, IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in March 2019 in Syria. Over the past years, Syrian government forces regained control of much of Syria with the help of Russia and Iran. Earlier this year, Syria’s membership in the Arab League was reinstated and Assad attended the Arab summit that was held in Saudi Arabia in May. Al-Sudani was invited to visit Damascus during a trip by Syria’s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad to Baghdad last month. The U.S. has a presence in both Syria and Iraq and Syrian officials have been calling for the withdrawal of American troops from the country who first arrived in 2015. On any given day there are at least 900 U.S. forces in Syria, along with an undisclosed number of contractors attempting to prevent the resurgence of the Islamic State group. U.S. special operations forces also move in and out of the country but are usually in small teams and are not included in the official count. U.S.-led coalition forces have officially ended their combat mission in Iraq, but continue to play an advisory role to Iraqi forces in the fight against the Islamic State extremist group. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

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Police in France are wrapping up the search for a missing toddler after scouring a remote village in the French Alps for five days. Two-year-old Emile was on holiday with his grandparents when he vanished while playing in a garden, sparking a frantic hunt that involved thermic camera drones, helicopters and sniffer dogs. Searches have so far yielded no clues to the whereabouts of the missing boy and police launched a last-ditch bid to find him on Thursday. Here’s a look at everything we know about the case so far. Where did Emile disappear? Emile, whose surname has not been reported, was playing in the garden of a property in Le Vernet - a small village of around 20 houses in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence on Saturday when he went missing. His family was preparing to go out hiking for the day when they realised the child, who lives near Marseille, had disappeared.The boy’s grandparents had been packing the car when he vanished. Emile is described as 3ft tall, with brown eyes and blonde hair and was wearing a yellow T-shirt, white shorts with a green pattern and walking shoes when he vanished. Reports said he was seen by two people when he left the property but they “lost sight of him”. Police said on Wednesday that at least 10 people were present at the property where Emile was last seen amid a family reunion, with “several uncles and aunts of the child, of all ages, including some minors”, a police source said. How has the search unfolded Authorities in France issued an appeal for information about Emile on 9 July after the boy was reported missing by his grandparents at 5.15pm the previous day. The search operation covered the land and air around Le Vernet and involved hundreds of police officers, soldiers and volunteers, The manager of a local restaurant said staff had looked “everywhere” for the boy as local volunteers helped with the search. “We were preparing for the evening service, when we were told the child had gone missing,” the manager told La Provence. “We all went to see what we could do to help as quickly as possible. “We have looked in places where he could be, we have really looked everywhere for him.” At one point during the search, police helicopters played the voice of Emile’s mother through speakers in the hope that it could help bring him out. On Wednesday evening it was reported that a vehicle with blood on it had been found amid the ongoing search for missing French toddler Emile. In a statement to La Provence, local prosecutor Rémy Avon said analysis had revealed the sample “animal blood”. Emile has now been missing for a week, as investigators admitted they have “no clue” what happened to him. Mr Avon also said that he had taken the decision to call off the “physical” search for Emile on Thursday. Police had been looking at a final plot of land in an area of Vernet, with around 50 officers taking part. “The judicial investigation into the causes of the disappearance will continue,” Mr Avon added. “In particular by analysing the considerable mass of information and elements collected over the past four days.” Police are today combing a 1.8km-long road, that has previously been searched before, in the hope of finding new evidence in Emile’s disappearance. But police say they will be searching the stretch of road more “meticulously” this time. What have politicians said? The mayor of Le Vernet on Friday said the best hope for the missing toddler is that “he’s been kidnapped and is alive”. In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Francois Balique commented on police calling off the physical search for Emile after five days and possible explanation’s for his disappearance. “Our only hope now is that he’s been taken and is alive. It’s the last thing we can hope for and it’s already terrible. “We could consider that someone wanting to cause harm to a child passed by the area, that he saw this beautiful little boy and took him away. He couldn’t survive alone in the wild, that’s for sure.” Mr Balique said it is ”difficult to favour one hypothesis over another” but explained that “the probabilities and the rationality would lead us to believe that we are dealing with an accident”. He continued: “And since little Emile’s body has not been found, it means that he was not alone at the time. We can consider a car accident in which the driver would have panicked and concealed the body. That’s one hypothesis.” Local politician Sylvie Belmontes had earlier said the search reminded her of the case of Yannis Moré, who vanished from Ganagobie, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in 1989 while playing with friends. “It reminds us of a lot of things. I sent a little message of support to the mayor of Vernet, François Balique”, Ganagobie mayor Sylvie Belmonte told La Provence, referencing the disappearance of 3-year-old Yannis Moré in May 1989. “I was town clerk and I took part in the search to try to find little Yannis”, he added. Mr Avon told a press conference earlier this week that police had “no clue” where the boy was. “His grandparents realised he was no longer there when they went to put him in the car.” What happens next Mr Avon said the previous searches did not yield any clues to solving the mystery of the boy’s disappearance and instead, investigators will be shifting their focus to evaluating evidence already gathered. “The investigation into the causes of his disappearance will continue, notably through analysis of the considerable amount of information and elements gathered over four days,” he added. Read More ‘Best hope’ for toddler missing in French Alps for week is ‘if he’s been kidnapped’ Desperate search for French toddler who vanished on holiday with grandparents Missing French toddler – latest: ‘Only hope is Emile has been taken and is alive,’ Le Vernet mayor says Greece ‘like Africa’ as Europe melts in deadly heatwave forecast to smash record Russian antiwar activist allowed into Serbia after spending more than a day at the Belgrade airport Wagner mercenaries are in Belarus and training the country’s soldiers

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