By Anas al-Bar | 2024-11-14

Iraq's most senior Shia cleric, Ali al-Sistani, has thrown his weight behind government efforts to rein in Iran-backed militias and keep the country out of regional conflicts.

Al-Sistani laid out principles on maintaining Iraq's stability during a November 4 meeting with United Nations Special Representative for Iraq and United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq head Mohammed al-Hassan.

These include enforcing the rule of law, limiting weapons possession to state forces, and preventing foreign interference – a clear reference to the Iranian regime's proxies, who have been launching attacks on Israel from Iraqi soil.

The so-called "Islamic Resistance in Iraq," a coalition of Iran-aligned factions, on November 11 claimed responsibility for four drone attacks targeting Israel, AFP reported.

Al-Sistani's stance aligns with Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's position that only Iraq's constitutional institutions can decide on matters of war and peace.

Al-Sudani has said that any armed group claiming this power challenges the constitution, the rule of law, and the state itself.

"Iraq's higher interests require keeping its lands and airspace away from the war machine," Iraq's Ministerial Council for National Security said November 6.

Iraqi foreign minister Fuad Hussein reinforced the government's position in a November 6 television interview, saying he warned his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, that Iraq would not permit unauthorized use of its airspace.

"Every party, side, and faction must prioritize the broader Iraqi interest, which requires us to maintain our distance from the battlefields," Hussein said.

Government represents Iraq

Al-Sistani's directives give the government backing to block unauthorized military action, said political analyst Tariq al-Shammari.

"Armed groups must choose between complying with these directives by disarming and ceasing illegal activities or remaining under the Iranians' influence and implementing their orders and agendas," he told Al-Fassel.

Militias that flout these directives under the guise of "resistance" risk isolation from Iraqi society and defy al-Sistani's religious authority, al-Shammari said.

The Iraqi government, not militias aligned with Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, represents the Iraqi people and their national interests, he stressed.

Some leaders of Iran-aligned Iraqi militias reject state authority.

Such militias have been "trying to exploit" al-Sistani's discourse, Arab-Australian Center for Strategic Studies head Ahmed al-Yasiri told local media.

"They don't feel legally obligated to comply with the demand to place weapons under state control, as along as this directive hasn't come from their religious authority in Iran [Khamenei]," political analyst Basil Hussein told local media.

These forces shun al-Sistani's directives "except when it serves their interests," he said.