Will US sanctions succeed in isolating Iraqi Shiite factions?
As the United States intensifies its activities against Iran in the region, it has also increased pressure on Iraqi factions backed by Iran. Yet the influence that these factions have in Iraq limits the effects of such pressures.
Reports in the media about a US draft law imposing sanctions on Shiite factions that are close to Iran were met with disapproval and dismay.
On Sept. 12, Republicans from the US Senate expressed a plan to submit a draft law imposing sanctions on the armed factions affiliated with Iran due to terrorist activities. If passed, the law requires US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to publish a list of Iraqi factions that receive support from Iran.
Member of parliament belonging to the Fatah Alliance Intisar al-Musawi commented Sept. 19 on the topic, saying, “Any US sanction against the factions of Islamic resistance is worthless and only falls within the lines of a Gulf-US plan seeking revenge over those supporting the resistance.”
The Fatah Alliance is a political alliance grouping the political sections of the armed factions close to Iran. On Sept. 13, Al-Nujaba movement, a pro-Iranian, armed Iraqi faction, qualified US pressure on Shiite factions as “political bankruptcy.”
