Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi says Iraq will not participate in any war, while Iran-backed factions describe supporting Tehran against the United States and Israel as a duty, raising questions over Baghdad’s ability to control how its territory and airspace are used.
“Iraq will not participate in any war,” Zaidi told state-run Al-Iraqiya television on Friday, saying Baghdad wanted to remain a meeting point for regional rivals and was working to ease the confrontation between Iran and the United States.
On Saturday, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella of Iran-aligned armed factions, declared that standing with Tehran was a moral duty and portrayed the conflict as a struggle between righteousness and falsehood, Rudaw reported.
The statement did not announce a resumption of attacks. It underscored the factions’ commitment to Iran at a time when Zaidi is promising to bring weapons and military decisions under state control.
Baghdad also faces economic and diplomatic costs from the conflict. Zaidi said disruption at the Strait of Hormuz had harmed Iraq and that his government had hoped its political, religious and popular ties with Iran would secure an exemption for Iraqi shipping.
He stressed the importance of relations with Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states, saying some believed attacks against them had originated in Iraq.
Contested skies
Reports of Israeli fighter jet activity near the Iranian border have put Iraqi airspace at the center of the confrontation even as Baghdad seeks to avoid direct involvement.
Axios reported this week that dozens of Israeli fighter jets flew toward Iran’s border in a demonstration of military capability. The aircraft passed through Syrian and Iraqi airspace before turning back near Iran.
Hardline Iranian lawmaker Mahmoud Nabavian demanded that Iraq tale action against the flights, alleging they were preparations for an attack on Iran.
“The Iraqi government must explain why the Zionist regime’s fighter jets are training and preparing to attack Iran in Iraqi airspace,” Nabavian wrote on X.
“If no action is taken, the Iraqi people, Iraq’s resistance groups and the Iranian nation will fulfill their duty,” he added, without specifying what action he meant.
His warning invoked Iraqi armed groups as potential actors alongside Iran if Baghdad failed to respond.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has separately accused US forces of conducting 171 violations of Iraqi airspace between September 30 and October 23.
The umbrella group alleged on Saturday that the United States was using military bases in Jordan and Turkey to conduct flights over Nineveh, Duhok, Erbil, Salahuddin, Anbar and Kirkuk provinces.
It said it had detected 17 aircraft on Friday, including reconnaissance drones and specialized aircraft. The figures and allegations were the factions’ account.
The dispute over foreign military flights also complicates efforts to restrain militia operations. When Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah announced a suspension of military operations on September 30, it excluded responses to what it called hostile aircraft and airspace violations until Iraqi government air defenses were fully established, Asharq Al-Awsat reported.
Suspected strikes on weapons stores
Iraqi officials suspect Israel attacked two sites storing Chinese-made man-portable air defense systems recently transferred from Iran to Iraqi factions, Awsat reported Saturday, citing unnamed sources.
The sources said a large shipment was destroyed shortly after arriving at the facilities.
On October 17, the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces reported an explosion at an ammunition storage facility in eastern Baghdad that injured five people. Its initial account pointed to an internal malfunction.
The newspaper also quoted an Iraqi political adviser as saying intelligence officials were examining whether renewed US-Israeli fighting against Iran had already begun covertly on Iraqi soil, targeting weapons shipments to Tehran-aligned groups.
Israeli responsibility and the reported contents of the warehouses remain unconfirmed. The suspected strikes nevertheless raise the prospect that Iraqi factions could become targets in renewed fighting regardless of Baghdad’s stated position.
A state with factions
Zaidi presented his campaign to bring weapons under government control as a test of whether the Iraqi state could exercise sovereignty.
“Are we a state with factions, or factions with a state?” he said in the television interview.
He said his government had reached understandings with five factions, completing arrangements with three and working to finalize them with two others. Discussions were continuing with another two, he said.
Zaidi pledged that no weapons would remain outside state control by June 30, 2027.
That deadline represents an extension of an earlier September target, and some factions have disputed the government’s account of progress.
Rudaw reported on October 19 that Kataib Hezbollah had described negotiations over its weapons as remaining at “square one,” accusing Zaidi of failing to respond to a proposed agreement.
The group also demanded clarification of Baghdad’s positions on US sanctions against Iran and conflicts elsewhere in the region, tying the weapons dispute to issues beyond Iraq’s borders.
Another attack in Kurdistan
A separate drone attack on Saturday highlighted the exposure of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, where Iranian Kurdish opposition groups have repeatedly come under fire.
An explosive-laden drone struck a camp northeast of Erbil, Reuters reported, citing security sources.
The Kurdistan Komala Party of Iran said one of its bases in the Alana Valley was hit, causing material damage but no casualties. The available account did not establish who launched the drone.
Iran has repeatedly launched missile and drone strikes against Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based in northern Iraq, accusing them of organizing attacks and fueling unrest inside Iran.
Baghdad agreed in 2023 to disarm the groups and relocate them away from the Iranian border.
The groups also figured in discussions about a possible ground offensive after the US-Israeli war began in February. Reuters reported in March that Iranian Kurdish factions had consulted Washington about attacking Iranian security forces in the country’s west, although it could not establish the extent of CIA involvement or whether US weapons had been supplied.
Trump initially welcomed the prospect of Kurdish fighters crossing into Iran, telling Reuters on March 5 that it would be “wonderful.” Two days later, he said he had told them to stay out.
“They’re willing to go in, but we really—I’ve told them I don’t want them to go in,” Trump told reporters. “The war is complicated enough without having, getting the Kurds involved.”
