ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi armed groups are hoping they can ward off an effort by a group of United States members of congress to slap terror labels on ten Iranian-backed factions, three sources told Rudaw English on condition of anonymity on Saturday, with one from the prime minister’s office saying such a designation would cause “chaos.”
A terror designation “is something we cannot rule out as it has happened before with other armed factions and their leaders,” a senior source from Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani’s office told Rudaw English.
While “the government would be left with little to do” to stop such a designation, “it would destroy any hope of integrating the Popular Mobilization Forces [into the state forces] since its leaders, Falih al-Fayyadh and his deputy Hadi al-Ameri among many other leaders, would be sanctioned,” the senior source added.
Twelve members of the US congress are urging Washington to blacklist Iran-backed armed factions in Iraq and end “all security assistance to Iraq” as long as these groups are “legally part of the Iraqi state.”
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 Org, 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 Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
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.
Many of the groups named by the members of congress are part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) - an umbrella organization that 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.
The members of congress said the armed groups have attacked US forces “at least 170 times in the past two years.”
Iraqi armed groups have carried out scores of rocket and drone attacks on US interests in the Middle East and were behind Baghdad’s decision to negotiate a withdrawal of American forces from the country.
Asked if they would retaliate with renewed attacks, a well-placed military source from one of the armed groups told Rudaw English, “The armed factions are strictly prohibited from conducting any type of escalation in the region.”
Badr Organization, one of the groups named by the members of congress, is committed to these government guidelines, a senior political source from the group told Rudaw English, saying “it is not in our best interest to cross those guidelines in the meantime.”
The well-informed source added that the Badr Organization is “currently not active as an armed faction” and criticized the congress members' effort to label them a terror organization as a “US injustice” that “is not new to us.”
Asked about being potentially labelled a terror organization, the Badr source said Sudani “should adopt measures to resolve this matter.”
Badr is “upholding its political commitments to the Shiite Coordination Framework and the State Administration Coalition and will not go against them,” he added.
Designating some armed factions would have a greater impact than others, according to the senior source from Sudani’s office.
Blacklisting the Badr Organization and the Imam Ali Brigades “would cause a lot of chaos and Washington does not want that,” the senior source said.
As for the Abu al-Fadhl al-Abbas Brigades, the senior source explained that the group is “active on a regional level and has non-Iraqi fighters [within their ranks]” so the US could adopt a different approach with them.
Ultimately, there is little that Sudani’s government can do, the senior source said, but added the prime minister “might make another trip himself to the US to clarify the dangers of such moves to Iraq’s security and stability.”
