Shafaq News – Baghdad

Iraq’s Harakat Al-Nujaba, a Shiite Iran-aligned armed faction, on Thursday blasted the inclusion of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis (Ansarallah) on Iraq’s national terrorism sanctions list as a “betrayal”.

Read more: Iraq withdraws Hezbollah, Houthis terror designation

Ali Al-Asadi, head of the group’s political council, wrote on X that Hezbollah and the Houthis “shed blood on Iraqi soil to defend its dignity and sacred sites.” He argued that any government responsible for the designation “does not represent the Iraqi people,” ending his post with a hashtag referencing what he called the “execution of the second term,” (referring to blocking caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani’s bid for a renewed premiership.)

The controversy followed a decision by Iraq’s Committee for Freezing Terrorist Assets, which added both groups to the national sanctions list in compliance with UN Security Council resolutions on counterterrorism and terror financing. The update appeared in Issue No. 4848 of the Official Gazette on November 17, 2025.

Iraqi authorities later walked back the designations, with a Central Bank clarification confirming that sanctions apply solely to individuals and entities tied to ISIS and al-Qaeda, explicitly excluding Hezbollah and the Houthis from the asset-freezing order.