Iraq unable to curb pro-Iran groups ‘internal’ attacks amid war: FM

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said Sunday Baghdad has been unable to curb pro-Iran armed groups carrying out attacks inside the country during the regional war, citing their military and political influence.

“It means this cannot continue this way. That is, the government must take action,” Hussein told Rudaw in an interview in Erbil, referring to attacks by Iraqi pro-Iran groups on the Kurdistan Region, the US Embassy in Baghdad, and sites including the Rasheed Hotel and the Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS) headquarters in the capital.

Since the onset of the war on February 28, pro-Iran armed groups - operating primarily under the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” umbrella - have launched a multi-front campaign targeting what they claim are US positions in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.

Responding to why the Iraqi government has not prevented pro-Iran armed groups from being involved in the war, Hussein said the issue has persisted for years, noting that “they also have power; they have military power, organizational power, and parliamentary power.”

On Saturday, a drone attack targeted the INIS headquarters in Baghdad, killing an intelligence officer. The attack was widely condemned, including by Iraq’s ruling Coordination Framework and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, whose office said he called on authorities to investigate and “reveal its findings and to announce to our great Iraqi people the party responsible for this disgraceful terrorist act without hesitation in exposing those responsible.”

Hussein said the attack on INIS “was internal and the evidence is that the Prime Minister today or yesterday gave an interview saying this cannot be done [tolerated], and those who declare war and stop war must be the state, not other people. So the indications point toward them.”

Sudani said during a visit to the INIS headquarters on Sunday that “Whoever dares to shed Iraqi blood does not represent Iraq.”

Iran is believed to maintain influence over several armed groups in Iraq, many of which operate under the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and have political representation within the government and parliament.

The US has carried out an intensive campaign of airstrikes against PMF factions and the powerful pro-Iran Kata’ib Hezbollah since the war began, killing dozens across several Iraqi provinces.

“Fundamentally, the US is not hitting Iraq… if this problem didn’t exist, this internal problem, the problem of weapons outside [the control] of the state,” Hussein said, adding that weapons outside state control “is not only a state itself but was also a threat to the Americans, the military American presence, and the diplomatic American [presence],” adding that US strikes in Iraq “were a reaction.”

Hussein said that months before the war, he met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and Ali Larijani, Iran’s national security chief who was recently killed in Israeli airstrikes. “I understood that Iran was preparing for war,” he said, adding that Larijani told him that if Iran were attacked, they would be “‘forced to make it a widescale war,’” including striking “‘anywhere Americans [militarily] are’”.

“I joked, [saying], keep us away from that issue, do not mention us [get us involved],” Hussein said he told Larijani, referring to the Kurdistan Region.

US President Donald Trump said Monday that Washington and Tehran have engaged in “productive conversations” to resolve the conflict, adding he had instructed the Department of War to “postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five day period.”

“My prediction is that this war will expand for a period, and after that, there will be a ceasefire or it will stop by itself. For example, the US announces that it has succeeded… but it will expand for a period,” Hussein said.

Regarding Iraq’s efforts toward a ceasefire, Hussein said, “I don't like to talk about it, but our duty is to not let war come into Iraq. To not let war come into Iraq,” adding that “of course we must remain in contact.”

He said he remains in contact with Araghchi through “message exchange.”


Sangar Abdulrahman contributed to this report.