US envoy warns: Israel will attack Iraqi terror groups if they help Hezbollah

Tom Barrack, the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy for Syria, during a visit to Baghdad on Monday, warned the Iraqi government to remain on the sidelines of a potential new conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

According to the Saudi state-run al-Hadath news outlet, Barrack signaled that a new escalation between Hezbollah and Lebanon could be coming soon and warned Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani that Israel could broaden its strikes to Iraq if the local Iran-backed Shia militias intervened on the terror group’s side.

Barrack and Sudani “discussed practical means through which Iraq can continue supporting Syria's stability, security, prosperity, and economic recovery, while simultaneously enhancing Iraq's own stability and prosperity,” Sudani’s office stated.

رئيس مجلس الوزراء السيد محمد شياع السوداني، يستقبل مبعوث الرئيس الأمريكي الخاص إلى سوريا السيد توم باراك.

وجرى، خلال اللقاء، بحث السبل العملية التي يمكن للعراق من خلالها مواصلة دعم استقرار سوريا وأمنها وازدهارها وتعافيها الاقتصادي، بما يعزّز في الوقت نفسه استقرار العراق… pic.twitter.com/r2C6Iqg6i0

— المكتب الإعلامي لرئيس الوزراء 🇮🇶 (@IraqiPMO) November 30, 2025

They were also said to have “reviewed mutual perspectives on preventing any further escalation in the region, supporting the diplomatic track to resolve disputes, and setting the region on a path of cooperation, economic growth, and long-term stability.”

Barrack reportedly told Iraqi officials that Israel’s military operations in Lebanon would continue until Hezbollah was disarmed, either through airstrikes or by the efforts of the Lebanese government, which has vowed to gradually disarm the group.

The Qatari Al-Araby Al-Jadeed outlet cited sources saying that Barrack asked al-Sudani to restrain the Shia terror groups in Iraq, which are partially integrated into the country’s official military system, and to also stop their economic support of Hezbollah.

The Iraqi militias are closely affiliated with the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), receiving training, weapons, and instructions from them, and are allied with Hezbollah.

Over the past two years, some of the Iraqi groups have joined Hezbollah and Hamas in fighting against Israel by launching hundreds of drones. In return, Israel conducted several strikes against them.

According to a report by Walla News last month, sources in the IDF Northern Command said that they are seeing an increasing threat of new attacks from Iraq, where the Iranian regime has been investing significant resources to be able to order attacks on Israel from the air and by land.

The report highlighted the Harakat al-Nujaba militia, which has close ties to Hezbollah. The group was founded in 2013 to assist the Assad regime during the Syrian Civil War and is part of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

The U.S. has included the group among the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

On Monday, Hussein al-Nimr, Hezbollah’s official responsible for the Bekaa Valley region said in a speech that laying down the group’s weapons would be a surrender to Israel’s threats against the country.

“The pressures being exerted on us are still ongoing… They pressure through a ground, naval, and aerial invasion into Lebanon, or through assassinations, surveillance, eavesdropping, politics, money, or international envoys,” he claimed.

“Those international envoys come as if to save us, but they threaten us, ‘Beware of Israel’ — all of this in order to guarantee Israel’s interest. They exert pressure so that we reach the stage of surrender, because what they are offering us is surrender. They are offering that the resistance abandon its weapons, withdraw from its positions, and integrate into politics after leaving the fighting — these are proposals of surrender and raising the white flag.”