Badr accuses government of ‘unjustified haste’ in adopting Saudi account of attack

BAGHDAD — The Badr parliamentary bloc accused the government of unjustified haste in accepting Saudi Arabia’s account of the pipeline attack, and praised the Islamic Resistance in Iraq for denying involvement — a rare public break by a bloc whose leader has backed the government’s weapons policy and sits on the committee handling it.

The bloc expressed “strong surprise at the Iraqi government’s unjustified haste in adopting the Saudi narrative to accuse internal parties immediately after the targeting of the oil pipeline, and in fixing accusations against Iraq before the completion of field technical investigations or relying on conclusive and tangible evidence,” spokesperson Hamed al-Mousawi said. “In contrast to this governmental haste, we value the wise and responsible position shown by the Iraqi resistance factions and their categorical denial of any connection to this incident.”

Suspicious agendas and external parties were exploiting the situation to create instability before Sept. 30, when the U.S.-led coalition is due to complete its withdrawal, the bloc said. It called on parliament’s Security and Defence Committee to take a direct part in the investigation rather than confine itself to oversight, and warned “against the danger of being drawn behind rumors and justifying violations of national sovereignty,” urging the government to rely only on national investigative committees.

Badr holds more than 20 PMF brigades and has moved toward compliance with the policy of bringing weapons under state control. Its leader Hadi al-Amiri sits on the Coordination Framework committee handling that file with Nouri al-Maliki and Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, brokered the stand-down when factions called off a planned response to the July strikes, and said last month there would “absolutely be no clash between the state and the resistance.”

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq called the attack “an honor we do not claim” earlier on Saturday and offered to join a government investigation.

Saudi Arabia said several drones launched from Iraqi territory struck its East-West pipeline in the Riyadh and Medina regions on Friday, causing injuries and material damage, and said it would not retaliate at this stage after Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi asked for time. Spokesperson for the commander-in-chief Sabah al-Numan said the drones came from Maysan governorate, after which Zaidi dismissed the Maysan Operations commander, removed the police chief and referred the heads of the governorate’s security agencies for investigation. Baghdad also closed several crossings on the Iranian border.