“The rumors about using Iraqi territory as a starting point for carrying out attacks were refuted, and they are fake justifications to legitimize the aggression on Iraq’s land and sovereignty,” said a statement from Iraq’s State Administration Coalition after a meeting in Baghdad.
All sides during the meeting stressed “keeping Iraqi territory away from the atmosphere of war,” according to the statement, while backing the Palestinian cause against Israel and blaming the latter for “seeking to expand [the war] and dragging the region into it with the aim of destabilizing security and stability.”
The State Administration Coalition is an alliance of Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish political parties in Iraq that successfully broke the political deadlock that left Iraq without government for over a year. The coalition-backed then-prime minister-designate Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani and voted to elect his cabinet in October 2022.
Iraq is a staunch supporter of Palestine, and the current Shiite-led cabinet has also sided with Lebanon in its fight against Israel. It has so far only provided humanitarian aid, but Iraq’s pro-Iran militia groups have carried out dozens of drone and rocket attacks on Israel since Hamas’ unprecedented attack over a year ago.
Since the conflict escalated in Lebanon, Iraq has opened its doors to thousands of Lebanese refugees fleeing the war, referring to them instead as “guests of Iraq.”
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a shadow militia group affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), announced last month that it launched drones against “vital targets” in the occupied Golan Heights. The group vowed to continue its attacks at an “escalating pace.”
In October, the Israeli army announced that two of its soldiers were killed and 24 others were injured when a suicide drone launched from Iraq hit a military base in the Golan Heights.
These attacks by the militia groups have raised concerns that Iraq could be dragged into the war - something Iraqi officials have said they want to avoid.
