The United States should sanction Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, including the powerful Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), Rep. Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina) and Rep. Greg Steube (R-Florida) said this week in a letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The PMF includes numerous militias arranged in dozens of brigades. Most of the militias are linked closely to Iran and have carried out numerous crimes in Iraq.
The Popular Mobilization Forces, “an umbrella group of 238,000 Iranian-backed militias, have been legitimized as part of Iraq’s state security services and receive over $3 billion annually from the Iraqi government, funded in part by American taxpayer dollars,” the letter said.
“Since 2015, the US Department of State has provided Iraq with $1.25 billion in Foreign Military Financing, in addition to billions more in aid to Iraq’s Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense, despite these institutions being deeply infiltrated by Iranian proxies. These same Iran-backed militias, now operating with legal authority under the PMF, have launched rocket attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria.”
“We write to express our deep concern over the complete subjugation of Iraq to the Iranian regime,” Wilson and Steube wrote.
“More than 4,400 American service members sacrificed their lives since the start of the Iraq War, yet today, Iraq stands as nothing more than a puppet of Tehran. This outcome is the direct result of disastrous policies that, under previous administrations, empowered Iran’s control over Iraq’s government, military, and economy.”
“The National Security Policy Memorandum-2 (NSPM-2) of February 4, 2025, clearly articulates the reimposition of maximum pressure on Iran and its terror proxies,” they wrote. “However, any campaign against the Iranian regime will require an equally robust campaign against Iraqi institutions, which have become essential clients of the Iranian regime.”
They said the US should expand sanctions on the various militias. The US has already sanctioned Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, and some other militias and their leaders.
The US should sanction the PMF, as well as “the Muhandis General Company and the Badr Organization, as foreign terrorist organizations,” the letter said.
The members also called for sanctions on Iraq’s importation of Iranian gas
Wilson and Steube also called for sanctions on Iraq’s importation of Iranian gas. In addition, a bank in Iraq and a number of individuals who support Iran should be sanctioned, they said, including “former prime ministers Nouri al-Maliki and Adel Abdulmehdi, Izzat Shabander, Hadi al-Ameri, Abdul Karim al-Sudani, Abbas Shia al-Sudani, Haider Shia al-Sudani, Abdul Karim al-Faisal, Yasser Suhail al Maliki, Minister of Higher Education Naem al-Aboud, Governor Adnan Feihan,” and others.
This is an important development, and it illustrates how the US is moving to potentially clip the wings of Iran’s role in Iraq. For instance, Kataib Hezbollah, which is part of the PMF, continues to hold Elizabeth Tsurkov, a researcher who is also an Israeli citizen.
Tsurkov was kidnapped in 2023 in Iraq while doing research. She is a doctoral student at Princeton. Her kidnapping was orchestrated by the Iranian-backed militias.
Reports from Iraq indicate that Baghdad is seeking to harm the autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq by not paying salaries. This illustrates how Baghdad is destabilizing Iraq through its policies.