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BAGHDAD: The prime minister of Iraq has kept his country on the sidelines as military conflicts raged nearby for almost two years. This required balancing Iraq’s relations with two countries vital to his power and enemies with each other: the US and Iran.
The feat became especially difficult last month when war broke out between Israel, a US ally, and Iran — and the US struck Iranian nuclear sites. Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said he used a mix of political and military pressure to stop armed groups aligned with Iran from entering the fray.
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Al-Sudani explains how he did this, how he plans to keep these groups in check going forward and — as he seeks a second term — why he wants to get closer to the Trump administration, even as he maintains strong ties to Iran-backed political parties that helped propel him to power in 2022.
Staying on the sidelines as Israel and Iran traded blows
After Israel launched airstrikes on Iran and it responded by firing missiles at Tel Aviv, armed groups in Iraq attempted to launch missiles and drones toward Israel and at bases in Iraq housing US troops, Al-Sudani said. But they were thwarted 29 times by Iraqi government “security operations” that he did not detail.
“We know that the (Israeli) government had a policy — and still does — of expanding the war in the region,” Al-Sudani said. “Therefore, we made sure not to give any justification to any party to target Iraq.”
Al-Sudani said his government also reached out to leaders in Iran “to urge them toward calm and to make room for dialogue and a return to negotiations.”
The future of the US presence in Iraq is in flux
The US and Iraq last year announced an agreement to wrap up the mission of an American-led coalition in Iraq fighting the Islamic State — and in March Al-Sudani announced that the head of IS in Iraq and Syria had been killed in a joint Iraqi-US operation. The first phase of the coalition’s drawdown was supposed to be completed by September 2025, but there has been little sign of it happening.
Al-Sudani said the US and Iraq will meet by the end of the year to “arrange the bilateral security relationship” between the two countries. He also hopes to secure US economic investment — in oil and gas, and also artificial intelligence — which he said would contribute to regional security and make ”the two countries great together.”
A variety of militias sprung up in Iraq in the years after the 2003 US invasion that toppled former autocratic leader Saddam Hussein. And since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023, sparking regionwide conflicts, an array of pro-Iran armed factions have periodically launched strikes on bases housing US troops.
Al-Sudani said the presence of the coalition forces had provided a “justification” for Iraqi groups to arm themselves, but that once the coalition withdrawal is complete, “there will be no need or no justification for any group to carry weapons outside the scope of the state.”
The fate of Iran-backed militias in Iraq is unclear
One of the most complicated issues for Al-Sudani is how to handle the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of mostly Shiite, Iran-backed militias that formed to fight IS. This coalition was formally placed under the control of the Iraqi military in 2016, although in practice it still operates with significant autonomy.
The Iraqi parliament is discussing legislation that would solidify the relationship between the military and the PMF, drawing objections from Washington. The State Department said in a statement last week that the legislation “would institutionalize Iranian influence and armed terrorist groups undermining Iraq’s sovereignty.”
Al-Sudani defended the proposed legislation, saying it’s part of an effort to ensure that arms are controlled by the state. “Security agencies must operate under laws and be subject to them and be held accountable,” he said.
Indications of weak state authority
In recent weeks, a series of drone attacks have targeted oil facilities in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region.
Kurdish regional authorities accused groups in the PMF of carrying out the attacks. Authorities in Baghdad disputed this, but haven’t assigned blame. Al-Sudani called the attacks a “terrorist act” and said his government is working with Kurdish authorities and coalition forces to identify those responsible and hold them accountable.
Just as the drone attacks have called into question Baghdad’s control over armed groups, so has the case of Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who went missing in Iraq in 2023.
Her family believes she is being held by the Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah, and there have reportedly been US-mediated negotiations to negotiate her release.
Al-Sudani did not name the group responsible for Tsurkov’s kidnapping, but he pushed back against the idea that his government has not made serious efforts to free her. He said his government has a team dedicated to finding her.
“We do not negotiate with gangs and kidnappers,” he said, but the team has been in discussions with political factions that might be able to help locate her.
Rebuilding relations with Damascus
Relations between Iraq and the new government in Syria have been tenuous since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in December, after a lightning offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgents.
Syria’s interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa was formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed Al-Golani. He once joined the ranks of Al-Qaeda insurgents battling US forces in Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003. Al-Sharaa still faces a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges in Iraq.
Al-Sharaa has since broken with Al-Qaeda and has fought against the Islamic State. Al-Sudani said his government is coordinating with the new Syrian government, particularly on security matters.
“We and the administration in Syria certainly have a common enemy, Daesh, which is clearly and openly present inside Syria,” he said.
Al-Sudani said his government has warned the Syrians against the mistakes that occurred in Iraq after Saddam’s fall, when the ensuing security vacuum spawned years of sectarian violence and the rise of armed extremist groups. In recent weeks, sectarian violence in Syria has shaken the country’s fragile postwar recovery.
Al-Sudani called for Syria’s current leadership to pursue a “comprehensive political process that includes all components and communities.”
“We do not want Syria to be divided,” he said. “This is unacceptable and we certainly do not want any foreign presence on Syrian soil,” apparently alluding to Israel’s incursions into southern Syria.

DEIR AL BALAH: Since Israel’s offensive led to a security breakdown in Gaza that has made it nearly impossible to safely deliver food to starving Palestinians, much of the limited aid entering is being hoarded by gangs and merchants and sold at exorbitant prices.
A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of flour has run as high as $60 in recent days, a kilogram of lentils up to $35. That is beyond the means of most residents in the territory, which experts say is at risk of famine and where people are largely reliant on savings 21 months into the Israel-Hamas war.
Israel’s decision this weekend to facilitate more aid deliveries — under international pressure — has lowered prices somewhat but has yet to be fully felt on the ground.
Bags of flour in markets often bear UN logos, while other packaging has markings indicating it came from the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — all originally handed out for free. It’s impossible to know how much is being diverted, but neither group is able to track who receives its aid.
In the melees surrounding aid distributions in recent weeks, residents say the strong were best positioned to come away with food.
Mohammed Abu Taha, who lives in a tent with his wife and child near the city of Rafah, said organized gangs of young men are always at the front of crowds when he visits GHF sites.
“It’s a huge business,” he said.
Every avenue for aid is beset by chaos
The UN says up to 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, aid groups and media outlets say their own staffers are going hungry, and Gaza’s Health Ministry says dozens of Palestinians have died from hunger-related causes in the last three weeks.
When the UN gets Israeli permission to distribute aid, its convoys are nearly always attacked by armed gangs or overwhelmed by hungry crowds in the buffer zone controlled by the military.
The UN’s World Food Program said last week it will only be able to safely deliver aid to the most vulnerable once internal security is restored — likely only under a ceasefire.
“In the meantime, given the urgent need for families to access food, WFP will accept hungry populations taking food from its trucks, as long as there is no violence,” spokesperson Abeer Etifa said.
In the alternative delivery system operated by GHF, an American contractor, Palestinians often run a deadly gantlet.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops while seeking food since May, mainly near the GHF sites, according to the UN human rights office, witnesses and local health officials. The military says it has only fired warning shots when people approach its forces, while GHF says its security contractors have only used pepper spray or fired in the air on some occasions to prevent stampedes.
‘You have to be strong and fast’
A man in his 30s, who insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisal, said he had visited GHF sites about 40 times since they opened and nearly always came back with food. He sold most of it to merchants or other people in order to buy other necessities for his family.
Heba Jouda, who has visited the sites many times, said armed men steal aid as people return with it and merchants also offer to buy it.
“To get food from the American organization, you have to be strong and fast,” she said.
Footage shot by Palestinians at GHF sites and shared broadly shows chaotic scenes, with crowds of men racing down fenced-in corridors and scrambling to grab boxes off the ground. GHF says it has installed separate lanes for women and children and is ramping up programs to deliver aid directly to communities.
The UN’s deliveries also often devolve into deadly violence and chaos, with crowds of thousands rapidly overwhelming trucks in close proximity to Israeli troops. The UN does not accept protection from Israel, saying it prefers to rely on community support.
The Israeli military did not respond to emails seeking comment about the reselling of aid. Israel denies allowing looters to operate in areas it controls and accuses Hamas of prolonging the war by not surrendering.
“There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.
The situation changed dramatically in March
For much of the war, UN agencies were able to safely deliver aid, despite Israeli restrictions and occasional attacks and theft. Hamas-led police guarded convoys and went after suspected looters and merchants who resold aid.
During a ceasefire earlier this year, Israel allowed up to 600 aid trucks to enter daily. There were no major disruptions in deliveries, and food prices were far lower.
The UN said it had mechanisms in place to prevent any organized diversion of aid. But Israel says Hamas was siphoning it off, though it has provided no evidence of widespread theft.
That all changed in March, when Israel ended the ceasefire and halted all imports, including food. Israel seized large parts of Gaza in what it said was a tactic to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages abducted in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.
As the Hamas-run police vanished from areas under Israeli control, local tribes and gangs — some of which Israel says it supports — took over, residents say.
Israel began allowing a trickle of aid to enter in May. GHF was set up that month with the stated goal of preventing Hamas from diverting aid.
Since then, Israel has allowed an average of about 70 trucks a day, compared to the 500-600 the UN says are needed. The military said Saturday it would allow more trucks in — 180 entered Sunday — and international airdrops have resumed, which aid organizations say are largely ineffective.
Meanwhile, food distribution continues to be plagued by chaos and violence, as seen near GHF sites or around UN trucks.
Even if Israel pauses its military operations during the day, it’s unclear how much the security situation will improve.
With both the UN and GHF, it’s possible Hamas members are among the crowds.
In response to questions from The Associated Press, GHF acknowledged that but said its system prevents the organized diversion of aid.
“The real concern we are addressing is not whether individual actors manage to receive food, but whether Hamas is able to systematically control aid flows. At GHF sites, they cannot,” it said.
Hamas has denied stealing aid. It’s unclear if it’s involved in the trade in aid, but its fighters would be taking a major risk by operating in a coordinated way in Israeli military zones that UN trucks pass through and where GHF sites are located.
The UN says the only solution is a ceasefire
UN officials have called on Israel to fully lift the blockade and flood Gaza with food. That would reduce the incentive for looting by ensuring enough for everyone and driving down prices.
Another ceasefire would include a major increase in aid and the release of Israeli hostages, but talks have stalled.
Hamas started the war when its fighters stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 hostages. Fifty captives are still being held in Gaza.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and is run by medical professionals. Israel has disputed its figures without providing its own.