The US has escalated its pressure on Iraq to “disengage from Iran” in recent weeks, senior Iraqi officials were cited as saying by Al-Araby al-Jadeed on 24 September.
“These measures go beyond the issue of armed factions and their advanced weaponry, and include reforms to the judiciary and financial sectors to ensure greater independence from the influence of groups allied with Iran,” the sources said.
One official said Washington has also demanded legal action against leaders of Iraqi resistance groups.
No specific names were given, yet Washington has sanctions imposed on a number of resistance leaders, including Qais al-Khazali of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq movement.
The pressure includes “the banking sector, where public and private banks have been subjected to a US oversight mechanism aimed at preventing Iran from exploiting the Iraqi financial system.”
“The Iraqi financial sector, both public and private, is now under near-total oversight by the US Treasury to ensure that Iran or its affiliates do not benefit from the Iraqi financial system. All financial transfers from Iraq abroad pass through intermediary banks in Jordan and the UAE, as part of current US oversight measures,” an Iraqi diplomat told the outlet.
“Dissolving armed groups” or integrating them into the state’s army is also on the list of US demands.
The Coordination Framework (CF), a political coalition of Shia parties aligned with and including several Iran-backed resistance factions, views the pressure as a potential green light for Israel to strike targets inside Iraq, according to the report.
Last week, the US officially designated four resistance groups as terrorist organizations: Al-Nujaba Movement, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Ansar Allah al-Awfiya Movement, and Kataib al-Imam Ali.
The US State Department said it was part of Washington’s “maximum pressure on Iran.”
In recent months, the US has also been pressuring Baghdad on the issue of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) draft law.
The law was signed into legislation in 2016 and institutionalized the PMU, a coalition of armed factions, some of which previously fought ISIS and resisted the 2003 US invasion of the country. The law integrated the organization, formed in 2014, into Iraq’s military structure.
A new draft law was introduced earlier this year, aiming to replace the 2016 law and further institutionalize the PMU into the Iraqi state with comprehensive regulation, including a mandatory retirement age and clearer administrative structure.
The law would also transform the PMU into a fully independent security institution directly under the country’s prime minister.
Among the groups represented in the PMU are Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, and the Al-Nujaba Movement – Iran-linked resistance factions involved in the attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria, which began after the start of the Gaza genocide and ended months later with the help of Iraqi government pressure.
The US has slammed the draft law, calling it the “institutionalization of Iranian influence” in Iraq.
Last year, the US launched heavy strikes on Kataib Hezbollah sites in Iraq in response to the killing of three soldiers in a drone strike on a US military base on the Syria–Jordan border.
Washington has reportedly threatened renewed attacks against Iraq if resistance factions linked to Iran are not disarmed.