Hamas, Houthis open offices in Baghdad

(JNS) — Hamas and the Houthis have recently established offices in Iraq. The offices, which opened in June, testify to Iraq’s shift towards the Iranian camp in Tehran’s conflict with Israel and the United States.

Since the U.S. military invasion to remove Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein 21 years ago, the country has maintained an “uneasy balance” between its Iranian neighbor and America, The New York Times reported on Sunday. That balance has increasingly turned in Iran’s favor as Tehran has funded sympathetic forces inside Iraq as part of its effort to build an unbroken arc of Shi’ite power stretching west to Lebanon and south to Yemen.

The Hamas representative in Baghdad is Mohammed al-Hafi, a member of the terrorist group’s bureau for Arab and Islamic Relations. The Houthi representative in Iraq is Abu Idris al-Sharafi. He has received an especially warm reception in Iraq, the Times said.

The two offices are a concrete indication of the transformation of Iraqi politics since Hussein’s ouster. He suppressed Islamic movements, whether Sunni or Shi’ite, viewing them as a threat to his power. Shi’ites were exiled, imprisoned or executed.

Today, Shi’ite parties dominate Iraqi politics, and Iran has pushed Iraq’s government to recognize Shi’ite militias. (The Hamas representative’s security detail is provided by one such militia, Kata’ib Hezbollah, the Times noted.) Shi’ite forces have formed political parties, gaining enough seats in the 2021 election to select the prime minister.

Faced with the Shi’ite’s rise, Iraq’s leadership could do little but agree when Hamas and the Houthis requested to open offices. 

“Some Iraqi government officials, according to two of the people who spoke to The New York Times, say privately they are not thrilled about their new guests but did not have the power to block them given the sway of the Iraqi political parties with ties to Iran,” the paper reported.

Officially, Iraq has denied a move towards Iran.

Thomas Juneau, a professor of international relations at the University of Ottawa, told the Times that Iran wants its proxies to coordinate more closely. There is “a growing institutionalization of relations between Iran’s partners in the Axis of Resistance,” he said.

Tehran has created a joint operation room and held regular meetings to bring proxy leaders together. “Iran has appeared to encourage its proxies from different countries to share military skills and even coordinate on targets,” the Times reported.

These efforts have “intensified” since Oct. 7, Juneau said.

Rashid al-Azzawi, chairman of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni Islamist party, said the war in Gaza has won sympathy for Hamas from Iraqis across all religions. Hamas is seen as fighting for “a humanitarian cause,” he stated.