The push led by Congressmen Joe Wilson and Gregory Steube calls on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz to designate “Abu Fadl al-Abbas Brigades, Badr Organization, Fatemiyoun Brigade, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, Kata’ib al-Imam Ali, Kata’ib Jund al-Imam, Kata’ib Sayyad al Shuhada, Sarayya al-Jihad, Sarayya Khorasani, and Zainabiyoun Brigade” as terrorist organizations.
“It’s time for a new Iraq policy. It doesn’t make sense to continue to send billions of dollars to Iraq which is at the same time funding Iran backed militias which attack Americans. It’s time to put America First. In President Trump’s first term the maximum pressure campaign bankrupted Iran and I believe that through his leadership, we will counter Iran’s malign role in Iraq,” Wilson said in a press release on Friday.
In a letter addressed to Rubio and Waltz and attached to the press release, the 12 members of congress argue that while US taxpayers have forked over billions of dollars in aid to Iraq in the past decade, “Iran-backed militias armed, trained and commanded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) continue to be legally part of the Iraqi state and security forces.”
Many of the groups named by the members of congress are part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). The umbrella organization emerged as a volunteer force backing Iraqi troops in their fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014. In November 2016, the Iraqi parliament passed a law that recognized the PMF as a state entity operating alongside the regular military.
Some of these groups also have political wings including blocs in parliament and affiliate ministers in the cabinet, and are part of Iraq’s ruling State Administration Coalition.
Citing Pentagon reports, the members of congress argued that “Iran and Iran-aligned militias” enjoy “strong ties” with “elements of Iraq’s traditional security forces” and have integrated their members into the Iraqi ministries of defense and interior, while retaining their ranks and “often experiencing rapid promotions due to their political ties.”
The letter calls out Iraq’s National Security Adviser Qasim al-Araji for allegedly being a “senior leader of Badr Corps” that “has American blood on its hands and was involved in the terrorist attack against the US embassy in Baghdad in December 2019.” The letter adds that Araji was previously “detained” by the US and “accused of smuggling Iranian-made bombs that had become effective killers of American troops.”
The members of congress also criticized former US President Barack Obama’s special envoy to counter ISIS, Brett McGurk, accusing him of having “worked with Iran-backed militias such as the Badr Corps” in the fight against ISIS. This relationship, they said, was “disastrous to our national security” as the militias have attacked US forces “at least 170 times in the past two years.”
