PM Sudani orders ‘urgent investigation’ into listing of Hezbollah, Houthis on Iraq terror list

BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Thursday ordered an urgent investigation into how Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis appeared on Iraq’s terror-financing list, after their names were published in the country’s official gazette.

In a statement, al-Sudani’s office said he directed authorities to “conduct an urgent investigation, identify responsibility, and hold those who fell short accountable” for the error in Decision No. 61 of 2025, issued by the Committee for Freezing Terrorists’ Assets and printed in Issue 4848 of al-Waqa’i al-Iraqiya.

The statement said the texts that appeared “reflected positions that are not real,” and stressed that Iraq’s approval of a Malaysian request to freeze assets “was limited to including entities and individuals linked to ISIS and al-Qaida.”

The prime minister’s office said Baghdad’s political and humanitarian positions on Lebanon and Palestine are “principled and not subject to bidding,” adding that they “reflect the will of the Iraqi people in all their brotherly components.” It said Iraq stands by “the right of the brotherly peoples to liberation and dignified living on their land,” and that “no one seeking provocation or acting out of failure can bid against the positions of the Iraqi government, which has always proven its firmness in supporting the historical rights of the rightful owners of the land, standing with them, and rejecting occupation, aggression, genocide, and forced displacement.”

The order followed a rapid reversal earlier in the day, when the Central Bank’s Committee for Freezing Terrorists’ Assets said the inclusion of Hezbollah and the Houthis had been “a mistake” caused by publishing an unedited draft of the list in the gazette.

The committee said the decision was prepared in response to a request from Malaysia under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1373 of 2001 and that Iraq had agreed to list only entities “linked to ISIS and al-Qaida.” It said the appearance of additional groups resulted from “publishing the list before editing” and confirmed that their names “will be removed” in a forthcoming correction in al-Waqa’i al-Iraqiya.

The earlier notice in the gazette had said the update came from the Committee for Freezing Terrorists’ Assets at the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers and cited U.N. resolutions and Iraqi counterterrorism financing laws as the basis for freezing the assets of designated entities and individuals.