Iraq tries to avoid regional fighting as militias fire into Israel

By Ahmed Rasheed and Timour Azhari

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Nervously watching Israel’s destructive campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon, Iraq is trying not to be drawn into the growing regional conflict as Iran-backed armed groups launch attacks on Israel from Iraqi territory, sources familiar with the matter say .

Two decades after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq is experiencing relative stability, with high revenues from oil sales funding a service-based agenda that has turned much of the country into a construction site. constructions.

Iraq does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, and the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani fears regional conflicts could affect its delicate balancing act between Washington and Tehran, both of which it allies with.

Axios reported late Thursday that Israeli intelligence suggests Iran is preparing to attack Israel from Iraqi territory in the coming days, possibly before the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, citing two unidentified Israeli sources.

There was no immediate comment from the Iraqis.

The spillover of the regional conflict has already led to months of tit-for-tat attacks between Iran-backed armed groups and US forces stationed in Iraq and the region, which only subsided after Iran intervened in February.

Sudani’s government has failed to persuade the Islamic Resistance in Iraq – a coalition of Iran-backed armed groups – to stop firing missiles and drones into Israel, according to four sources in the Iran-backed armed groups and two government advisers.

Two visits to Iran by senior Iraqi security officials in the past two months, seeking Tehran’s help in reining in allied Iraqi factions, have failed, the sources said.

“The Iraqi delegation received a cold reception in Tehran… The answer was: those groups have their own decision and it is their call to decide how to support their brothers in Lebanon and Gaza,” said a senior Iraqi security official briefed about visits.

Baghdad has appealed to Washington, asking US officials to intervene in Israel to prevent retaliation for the attacks, including one that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded more than 20 on October 4, the sources said, the first time such attack was reported to Washington. cause deaths.

“Washington understood the repercussions of possible Israeli attacks in Iraq and pledged to help,” an Iraqi foreign ministry official said.

A spokesman for the US embassy in Baghdad did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Four militia sources said the Kataib Hezbollah and Nujaba groups, which are leading the attacks on Israel, warned the prime minister not to pressure them to stop their actions and vowed to continue their attacks as long as Israel will continue its operations in Gaza and Lebanon.

The issue has divided parties in Iraq’s ruling coalition, all of which are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and see Israel as an enemy, although some differ on how involved Iraq should be in the regional confrontation.

Shiite leaders discussed the risk of repercussions from attacks on Israel and possible Israeli retaliation during two meetings in October, said Ahmed Kenani, a Shiite lawmaker in the ruling alliance.

Key players in the Shiite coalition see direct confrontation with Israel as counterproductive and potentially harmful to Iraq, according to four Shiite lawmakers.

“Those groups that have missiles and drones should go to Gaza and Lebanon to fight against Israel, instead of pushing Iraq to destruction,” said Iraqi Prime Minister’s adviser Abdul Ameer Thuaiban.

Kataib Hezbollah, the most powerful of the armed factions, said Israel and the US would have to pay a price for Israel’s attacks on Iran last week.

Senior Iraqi security sources told Reuters before the attack that any strike by Israel against Iran outside of what the sources called established rules of engagement could lead pro-Iranian armed groups to significantly expand their attacks on Israel and of US assets in the region.

Mohammed Shummary, president of the Baghdad-based Sumeria Foundation think tank, said the escalating regional conflict risks drawing Iraq’s Shiite Muslim parties, many of them heavily armed, into a showdown that few had an initial appetite for.

“They are torn between maintaining their resolve to keep Iraq out of the confrontation and their ideological and political commitments to the Shiites in Lebanon and the wider axis of resistance amid Israeli aggression that has crossed all permissible red lines,” he told Reuters.

“If the confrontation escalates … this may mean not only continued attacks on Israeli targets, but also the potential involvement of additional factions in larger and more complex operations,” he said.

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Writing by Timour Azhari; Editing by Daniel Wallis)