From Sanctions to Blacklists: The U.S. Campaign to Curb Iran’s Reach in Iraq

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – In a stark and significant escalation of American pressure on Baghdad, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein has announced that the United States has placed six Iraqi armed groups on a "prohibited" list, effectively barring them from any participation in the country's future government.

The revelation, made during a televised interview, marks the most concrete and politically potent step yet in a long-simmering campaign by Washington to curtail the influence of powerful factions it views as destabilizing proxies of Iran, a move the U.S. believes is essential for Iraq to cultivate "healthy dealings" and successful diplomatic relations with the international community.

Speaking with the 'Al-Hadath' channel, Foreign Minister Hussein laid bare the new American position, a declaration that moves beyond general warnings and into the realm of direct political exclusion. "America has placed the names of six Iraqi armed groups on the 'prohibited' list, who cannot participate in the future Iraqi government," Hussein stated, confirming a decisive shift in U.S. policy.

He further elaborated on the American rationale behind this unprecedented step, explaining that Washington’s objective is to ensure Baghdad can operate on the world stage without the encumbrance of entities that undermine its sovereignty and international standing.

"America believes it has made this decision so that Iraq can ensure a successful diplomatic relationship with the international community and have easy dealings with all countries," the Foreign Minister added.

This dramatic development, while a clear escalation, is rooted in a long-standing and consistent American position, a point Hussein himself has repeatedly acknowledged.

He stressed that these warnings from Washington are "not a new issue," noting that across different administrations, the U.S. has consistently voiced its grave concerns. "In the previous administration as well, America has warned Iraq several times," Hussein remarked, "especially about those groups that the American government has observations on and sees as being directed and supported by Iran."

His statement serves as an official Iraqi acknowledgment of a fundamental and persistent point of friction in the strategic relationship between Baghdad and Washington, a friction that has now reached a critical juncture.

The Foreign Minister's announcement gives new weight and context to a recent crescendo of assertive statements and actions from various branches of the U.S. government.

At the beginning of this month, the U.S. Department of State issued one of its most forceful calls to date for the complete ending and dismantling of the armed groups operating outside of state control in Iraq.

In a press release issued by the U.S. State Department on October 21, 2025, concerning a phone conversation between Secretary Rubio and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, the statement read:

“The Secretary highlighted the urgency in disarming Iran-backed militias that undermine Iraq’s sovereignty, threaten the lives and businesses of Americans and Iraqis, and pilfer Iraqi resources for Iran. The Secretary reiterated the U.S. commitment to working closely with Iraqi partners to advance our shared interests: safeguarding Iraqi sovereignty, bolstering regional stability, and strengthening our economic ties.”

This diplomatic and political pressure has been systematically complemented by a potent economic campaign.

On October 9, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed a new and significant package of sanctions targeting several Iraqi banks and, most notably, the 'Al-Muhandis General Company.' U.S. officials explicitly identified the state-owned company as being affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the powerful Iraqi militia Kata'ib Hezbollah, describing it as the economic arm of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

This action demonstrated Washington's willingness to use its financial leverage to directly target the economic infrastructure that sustains these armed factions, further tightening the vise on their operations. The sanctions were met with a sharp reaction from Baghdad at the time, with government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi labeling them "unilateral and unjustified" and warning that such measures "undermine the spirit of partnership" between the two nations.

Foreign Minister Hussein’s latest remarks build upon his previous acknowledgment of this intensifying pressure. In a televised interview just last week, he affirmed that the U.S. position regarding these factions is "clear and consistent," emphasizing that Washington's stance was neither new nor ambiguous.

That statement, however, came in the immediate aftermath of what has been widely interpreted as the most severe military warning Washington has delivered to Baghdad in years.

The warning was conveyed in a dramatic and uncompromising phone call from U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to his Iraqi counterpart, Defense Minister Thabet al-Abbasi. According to al-Abbasi's account of the 11-minute call, which was delivered through the U.S. chargé d’affaires in Baghdad, Hegseth cautioned the Iraqi government against any interference by armed factions in upcoming U.S. military operations "in areas near Iraq," concluding with an ominous final line: "This is your final notice, and you know well how the current administration will respond."

This direct threat has been seen by political observers in Baghdad as a definitive turning point, signaling that Washington's strategic patience has run out. Dr. Ihsan al-Shammari, head of the Iraqi Center for Political Thought, assessed the warning as marking "the end of the testing phase" of the U.S. approach.

He suggested that the factions now face a stark choice: they must either "align with the state and disarm or face possible U.S. military action." This analysis was echoed by security expert Mukhlid Hazem, who told Asharq Al-Awsat that "military arrangements are clearly underway in the region, possibly involving coordinated air operations targeting Iranian-backed groups."

This coordinated, multi-pronged campaign—combining military threats, diplomatic ultimatums, and crippling economic sanctions—places the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in an exceptionally delicate and precarious position. His ruling coalition, the Shiite Coordination Framework, is a broad alliance that includes several of the powerful factions that Washington now explicitly identifies as adversaries and has placed on its "prohibited" list.

This reality means the Prime Minister is caught in a difficult bind, trapped between the demands of Iraq’s most crucial international strategic partner and the political imperatives of maintaining his own governing coalition, which is heavily influenced by these armed allies.

The timing of this escalation, on the eve of Iraq's November 11 parliamentary elections, further complicates the political landscape, adding immense external pressure to an already fraught internal environment.

The American strategy has been described by analyst Abbas Abboud Salem as a classic "carrot-and-stick" approach. The same phone call in which Secretary Hegseth delivered his "final notice" also included discussions on continued U.S.-Iraqi cooperation on drone operations, a security and intelligence memorandum, and the planned delivery of Bell helicopters to Iraq.

This dual approach of simultaneously offering partnership while threatening punitive action is designed to compel Baghdad to make a definitive choice between its allegiance to its international partners, led by the United States, and its tolerance of powerful armed factions operating with impunity within its borders.

Fuad Hussein's stunning revelation that six of these factions are now formally blacklisted from holding government positions represents the sharpest edge of this American stick. It transforms abstract warnings into a tangible political barrier, fundamentally altering the calculus for forming any future Iraqi government and posing a direct challenge to the very structure of the ruling establishment.

His confirmation signals that the era of ambiguous warnings is over, and Iraq is now facing a new and more assertive phase in its relationship with the United States—one that could profoundly reshape the nation’s security landscape and force a long-avoided reckoning over the ultimate authority of the Iraqi state.