| For his side, al-Ghanmi said that the three military commanders discussed the opening of border crossings between Syria and Iraq in their meeting. The Iraqi official said that there is ongoing coordination between the Iraqi and Syrian government regarding the war on the Islamic State (IS) group, locally known as Daesh. "We continued to hunt down the sleeper cells of the group by launching strikes inside Syria in coordination with the Syrian state to hit the supply routes and stocks of the enemy groups," he said. Currently, he continued, "the border security is important between both countries because we always say that the security of Syria and Iraq is integral." The Iranian chief of staff, meanwhile, stressed that there is active coordination between Syria, Iran, and Iraq regarding counter-terrorism. "Without a doubt, these meetings with the presence of Iran, Iraq, and Syria stress that we are still united in the face of terrorism and against the hands of terrorism which are Daesh and other terror groups. We have high coordination and we will move forward with great determination," Bagheri said. He made it clear that the goal in the current period is to enable the Syrian government to wrest control over all Syrian areas, noting that the foreign forces which entered Syria illegally, such as the United States and Turkey, will have to withdraw. "We stressed that to reach the final stage for the Syrian government to restore all Syrian areas. We will be by their side (Syrian government)," he said. The Iranian official also stressed on the opening of the Iraqi-Syrian border to enable the Iranian merchants and tourists to visit Syria through Iraq. The border crossings for Iran is a sensitive and important matter, for the trade exchange and the movement of visitors from Iran through Iraq to Syria, he said. It's worth noting that the meeting between the three commanders is the first of its kind to take place in Damascus publicly. | 
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