Pro-Iranian Iraqi militias announce intention to stop actions against Israel - report

Pro-Iranian Iraqi militias have reportedly reached an agreement to halt their actions against Israel, the Lebanese Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on Monday.

According to Al-Akhbar, the leader of the Iraqi Al-Nujaba movement, a US-designated terrorist group, confirmed that the militia reached an agreement with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani that "the factions decided not to interfere in Syrian affairs and to follow the situation from a distance, in addition to waiting to know the orientations of the US President-elect, Donald Trump, and his policy towards the Middle East, specifically Iran."

The leader confirmed that the group would also stop all military operations against Israel.

He stated that "the Islamic Republic of Iran gave us the freedom to decide regarding the Syrian scene and the control of the terrorist groups called Haya'at Tahrir al-Sham.” Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr protest against corruption, inside the parliament in Baghdad, Iraq July 30, 2022. (credit: THAIER AL-SUDANI/REUTERS)

Additionally, the spokesman for the Sayyed al-Shuhada Brigades, Kazem al-Fartousi, told Al-Akhbar that “circumstances determine the positions of the factions, and the principle of unity of arenas is not linked to a temporary alliance between the factions of the axis of resistance, but rather it is a matter of principle and doctrine, and whatever the losses, the Iraqi factions have not and will not abandon the principle of unity of arenas.”