Ruling coalition says Iraqi interests must be prioritized amid rising tensions

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s governing coalition on Sunday, reacting to United States airstrikes that killed at least 16 Iraqis, threw its support behind Baghdad’s efforts to prevent being dragged into a regional conflict and said the country’s national interests must take precedence.

The State Administration Coalition - an alliance of Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish political parties - held an emergency meeting at the invitation of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani. Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid also attended.

“The coalition emphasizes its support for the government in not allowing any party to drag Iraq into the conflict engulfing the region. The paramount national interest of Iraq must take precedence over any other interest,” read a statement from the alliance that condemned the US strikes.

Washington on Friday night launched a major retaliation campaign against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and Iran-aligned militias in Iraq and Syria, striking more than 85 targets and killing at least 16 Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) fighters and injuring another 36 in Iraq’s western Anbar province, near the Syrian border.

According to the State Administration Coalition, the American strikes “constitute a serious attack on an official Iraqi security institution, a violation of Iraq's sovereignty and security, and a disregard for international norms and laws governing relations between countries.”

In a letter to Congress on Sunday, US President Joe Biden said he ordered the strikes to “deter the IRGC and affiliated militia groups” from conducting attacks on US personnel and facilities.

The strikes “have been conducted in a manner designed to limit the risk of escalation and avoid civilian casualties,” he said, adding that he “will direct additional measures, including against the IRGC and IRGC-affiliated personnel and facilities, as appropriate.”

Iran has also indicated it does not want an escalation of conflict. “Continuation of war is not the solution,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on X that he told Britain’s foreign secretary in a recent meeting, but warned against testing “the wrath of the region.”

Iraq’s foreign ministry on Saturday summoned the charge d’affaires of the US Embassy in Baghdad, David Burger, to protest against the “American aggression that targeted Iraqi military and civilian sites.”

Ongoing talks between Baghdad and Washington to end the presence of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) were instigated by Iraq’s anger over repeated US strikes on its territory. Hardline Iran-backed Iraqi politicians have called for international forces to leave the country.

The US airstrikes were in retaliation for more than 165 rocket and drone attacks on American troops in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan since mid-October by Iran-aligned militia groups condemning Washington’s support for Israel in its war in the Gaza Strip. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups affiliated with the IRGC, has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks. The most recent drone attack took place at a military base in Jordan last Sunday and killed three American soldiers.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Washington had “informed” Baghdad prior to carrying out the attacks, an assertion denied by Iraqi government spokesperson Basim al-Awadi.

In neighboring Syria, at least 23 pro-Iran fighters were killed by the US strikes, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor. The Syrian defense ministry also said a number of its soldiers and civilians were killed in the strikes in its eastern Deir ez-Zor province.