Iraq's pro-Iranian militia Al-Nujaba Movement has reached an agreement with Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani to cease military operations against Israel, according to a report Monday in the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, affiliated with Hezbollah, citing a senior militia official.
"The resistance will stop military operations against Israel as part of its support for Gaza and will not interfere in political changes in Syria," the senior official said. This came as part of a dialogue between the two sides, against the backdrop of regional and international demands to disband the militias and hand over their weapons to the state, according to the news report.
The same official said that "the factions have decided not to interfere in Syrian affairs and to monitor the situation from a distance while also awaiting the policy directions of US President-elect Donald Trump, particularly regarding the Middle East and Iran." He added that Tehran gave them the freedom to decide regarding the Syrian arena.
Since the outbreak of the war on October 7, 2023, the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, which are in very close contact with Hezbollah, have attacked Israel and began to accept responsibility for firing into its territory - as they saw themselves as another front in the Iranian axis fighting Israel "in support of Gaza."
Even after the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect about a month ago, elements of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an organization made up of pro-Iranian militias, announced that they would continue their military activity against Israel and said that they had nothing to do with the cease-fire in Lebanon.
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"At the last meeting of the resistance, it was agreed to continue attacks against Israel until it completely stops its attacks on Gaza and stops threatening to attack Iraq," the sources said.
The Islamic Resistance in Iran is a relatively new union operating over the last year, made up of several veteran militias supported by Iran: Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq, Al-Nujaba, Ansar Allah al-Awfiya and Al-Imam Ali. A trickle of drones and missiles from Iraq and Syria has been recorded in the past year, and the organization has been known to publish claims of responsibility for attacks on Israel, whether using missiles or drones, and has sometimes also published videos of the launches.
There have been many times that drones fired from Iraq did not reach Israel at all, other times they were intercepted; but when they did hit they caused casualties. In October, Sgt. Daniel Aviv Haim Sofer, 19, and Corporal Tal Dror, 19, were killed in a strike by such a drone.
The Iraqi government, for its part, has worked to avoid being drawn into the regional conflict, but has failed to deal with the attacks being carried out from its territory and to rein in the militias. Baghdad even turned to Washington last month, asking the Americans to intervene with Israel to prevent a response to the attacks. "Washington was aware of the possible consequences of Israeli attacks in Iraq and promised to help," said an Iraqi Foreign Ministry official.
Four militia sources said at the time that the Hezbollah Iraqi and Al-Nujaba Brigades, two organizations within the coalition that are leading the attacks on Israel, warned Prime Minister Al-Sudani not to pressure them to stop their operations, and pledged to continue as long as Israel continues to fight in Gaza and Lebanon. The issue has created divisions among the parties in Iraq’s ruling coalition, which all support the Palestinian struggle and see Israel as an enemy, but disagree about the extent of Iraq’s involvement in the regional conflict.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has not only acted against Israel, the U.S. forces operating in bases in Iraq and Syria are another of its targets. The pro-Iranian militias are interested in removing the United States from Iraq and, in recent months, reports have also been published about progress in talks between the United States and the Iraqi government regarding the date for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country. It is not clear how true the reports are on the subject, or whether they are merely intended to calm the militias, who threaten to escalate their activities against the Americans whenever they see no progress. The organization is attacking the American bases, it claims, also because of the U.S. assistance to Israel in the Iron Swords war.