The prime minister of Iraq has kept his country on the sidelines as military conflicts raged nearby for almost two years. This required balancing Iraq’s relations with two countries vital to his power and enemies with each other: the U.S. and Iran.
The feat became especially difficult last month when war broke out between Israel, a U.S. ally, and Iran — and the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear sites. Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said he used a mix of political and military pressure to stop armed groups aligned with Iran from entering the fray.
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Al-Sudani explains how he did this, how he plans to keep these groups in check going forward and — as he seeks a second term — why he wants to get closer to the Trump administration, even as he maintains strong ties to Iran-backed political parties that helped propel him to power in 2022.
Staying on the sidelines as Israel and Iran traded blows
After Israel launched airstrikes on Iran and it responded by firing missiles at Tel Aviv, armed groups in Iraq attempted to launch missiles and drones toward Israel and at bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops, al-Sudani said. But they were thwarted 29 times by Iraqi government “security operations” that he did not detail.
“We know that the (Israeli) government had a policy — and still does — of expanding the war in the region,” al-Sudani said. “Therefore, we made sure not to give any justification to any party to target Iraq.”
Al-Sudani said his government also reached out to leaders in Iran “to urge them toward calm and to make room for dialogue and a return to negotiations.”
The future of the US presence in Iraq is in flux
The U.S. and Iraq last year announced an agreement to wrap up the mission of an American-led coalition in Iraq fighting the Islamic State — and in March al-Sudani announced that the head of IS in Iraq and Syria had been killed in a joint Iraqi-U.S. operation. The first phase of the coalition’s drawdown was supposed to be completed by September 2025, but there has been little sign of it happening.
Al-Sudani said the U.S. and Iraq will meet by the end of the year to “arrange the bilateral security relationship” between the two countries. He also hopes to secure U.S. economic investment — in oil and gas, and also artificial intelligence — which he said would contribute to regional security and make ”the two countries great together.”
A variety of militias sprung up in Iraq in the years after the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled former autocratic leader Saddam Hussein. And since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023, sparking regionwide conflicts, an array of pro-Iran armed factions have periodically launched strikes on bases housing U.S. troops.
Al-Sudani said the presence of the coalition forces had provided a “justification” for Iraqi groups to arm themselves, but that once the coalition withdrawal is complete, “there will be no need or no justification for any group to carry weapons outside the scope of the state.”
The fate of Iran-backed militias in Iraq is unclear
One of the most complicated issues for al-Sudani is how to handle the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of mostly Shiite, Iran-backed militias that formed to fight IS. This coalition was formally placed under the control of the Iraqi military in 2016, although in practice it still operates with significant autonomy.
