Iran Wins Another Victory in Iraq https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/politics-current-affairs/2020/07/iran-wins-another-victory-in-iraq/

July 8, 2020 | Yoni Ben Menachem
About the author:

During the war against Islamic State, Iran-backed militias fought alongside the Iraqi army, while also terrorizing Iraqi Sunnis. Now these militias—known as the Popular Mobilization Units—have sought to integrate themselves into the country’s security forces while remaining loyal to Tehran. Yoni Ben Menachem comments on the new Iraqi prime minister’s continued failure to rein them in:

On June 25, 2020, Iraqi forces raided the Baghdad headquarters of the Hizballah Brigades, a militia loyal to Iran, and arrested fourteen operatives on suspicion of planning and carrying out rocket attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq, including on the American embassy in Baghdad and Iraqi army bases where U.S. troops are stationed. The raid also captured a workshop manufacturing . . . rockets.

The raid was ordered by Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. . . . However, shortly after the raid, pro-Iranian militia members . . . began issuing threats, . . . and the fourteen [militants] arrested in the raid were swiftly released. As soon as they were freed, they went to the center of Baghdad to celebrate, where they trampled images of Prime Minister Kadhimi and set fire to Israeli and U.S. flags.

The obvious conclusion is that the release of the Hizballah Brigades operatives and the surrender of Prime Minister Kadhimi to the Popular Mobilization Units’ pressure indicate that the pro-Iranian militias can effectively veto any political decision they do not approve of. Kadhimi’s capitulation is [a] political mistake that [will] be very difficult to correct.

Read more on Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs: https://jcpa.org/the-capitulation-of-the-iraqi-prime-minister-to-iran/