Iraq tries to avoid regional fighting as militias fire on Israel

By Ahmed Rasheed and Timour Azhari

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq is watching Israel’s destructive campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon nervously and is trying to avoid becoming drawn into the growing regional conflict as Iranian-backed armed groups launch attacks on Israel from Iraqi territory, sources familiar with the matter say with the case.

Twenty years after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq is experiencing relative stability with high revenues from oil sales financing a services-based agenda that has turned much of the country into a construction site.

Iraq does not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel and the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani is wary of regional conflicts that could affect the delicate balancing act between Washington and Tehran, both states with which the country is allied.

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

There was no immediate Iraqi comment.

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

The Sudanese government has failed to convince the Islamic Resistance in Iraq – a coalition of Iranian-backed armed groups – to stop firing missiles and drones into Israel, according to four sources in Iranian-backed armed groups and two government advisers .

Two visits to Iran by Iraq’s top security officials in the past two months seeking Tehran’s help to rein in its allied Iraqi factions failed, the sources said.

“The Iraqi delegation received a cold reception in Tehran… The answer was: these 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 on of the events. visits.

Baghdad turned to Washington and asked U.S. officials to intervene with Israel to prevent retaliation for the attacks, including an attack that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded more than 20 on Oct. 4. According to the sources, this is the first time such an attack has been reported. cause fatalities.

“Washington understood the consequences of possible Israeli attacks in Iraq and promised to help,” an Iraqi Foreign Ministry official said.

A spokesperson for the U.S. 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, have warned the prime minister not to pressure them to stop their actions and have pledged to continue their attacks as long as Israel continues its operations Gaza and Lebanon continues.

The issue has divided parties in Iraq’s governing coalition, all of whom sympathize with the Palestinian cause and view Israel as an enemy, although some differ on the extent to which Iraq should be involved 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 from the ruling alliance.

According to four Shiite lawmakers, key players in the Shiite coalition view direct confrontation with Israel as counterproductive and potentially damaging to Iraq.

“The groups that have the missiles and drones should go to Gaza and Lebanon to fight Israel instead of pushing Iraq towards destruction,” said Iraqi Prime Minister Advisor 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 ahead of that attack that any attack by Israel on Iran, outside what the sources called established rules of engagement, could prompt pro-Iranian armed groups to significantly increase their attacks on Israel and US assets in the region expand.

Mohammed Shummary, chairman of the Baghdad-based think tank Sumeria Foundation, said the growing regional conflict risks pushing Iraq’s Shiite Muslim parties, many of them heavily armed, into a confrontation that few initially wanted.

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

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

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