Shiite leaders of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) denied reports claiming that the factions agreed to escalate attacks against US troops in Iraq.
Recent reports said there was "defiance" against the directives of the commander of al-Quds Force Esmail Qaani regarding maintaining calm after targeting Erbil airport and Ain al-Assad base.
However, sources confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that a meeting was held last week in Baghdad airport between Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officers and Iraqi Shiite leaders where the two sides agreed on maintaining calm, which was opposed by Hezbollah and Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades.
The sources said that the leaders of the Fatah Alliance and Asaib Ahl al-Haq supported the decision, however, the Sayyid Al-Shuhada Brigades spokesman, Kadhim al-Fartousi, announced that the Iraqi Islamic resistance strongly rejected any mediation regarding halting military operations against the US forces.
The military escalation against the US troops aims to remove them from Iraq, he said, warning that escalation will not be stopped, regardless of pressures on the factions.
According to Iraqi sources, who attended the meeting, the Iranian proposal was met with challenge and opposition.
One of the six faction leaders said: "They could not stay quiet while the death of his predecessor Qassim Soleimani and senior Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a US drone strike went unavenged."
The details from the meeting, confirmed to The Associated Press by three Shiite political officials and two senior militia officials, demonstrate how Iranian-aligned Iraqi militia groups are asserting a degree of independence, sometimes even flouting orders from Tehran.
Iran now relies on Lebanon's Hezbollah for support in reining them in, and there is potential that Iran's new president could play a role in doing the same.
Abu Ali al-Askari brigades take a different path from the rest of the factions, adopting direct and adventurous escalation without agreeing to any political settlement with the other PMF brigades.
The leader of the Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades is threatening to postpone the elections scheduled for April 2022, according to The AP.
The sources said that the Iranian officers warned the leaders of the Shiite factions that "continuing the security escalation will end the Shiite rule."
The regional situation is reaching dangerous levels, and the Iranians have sent clear messages to the Iraqis that the situation at the Afghan border requires a stable front in the eastern axis, especially in Iraq, according to a Fatah commander and political advisor of Rule of Law coalition.
The Fatah commander said that major Shiite parties have agreed to a minimum truce until the Iraqi elections, but the situation is getting more complicated because of the decentralization method in which the factions operate.
Three main factors play into the policy of "creative chaos" for the faction's system.
The first is the emerging Shiite cells, which work with the leaders of the traditional factions without direct contact with the Iranians and carry out special operations.
The second is that the factions' strategy separates their rivalry with Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi and their agenda of removing the US forces from the country.
But the third factor constitutes the intense competition for influence over whom to replace Muhandis.
A PMF commander reported that the relationship between factions' leaders is not what it seems, saying there is intense competition.
"It may all seem chaotic, but it is the chaos that created influence in Iraq," he noted.
Several factions see in the new Iranian president Ebrahim Rasisi a more significant opportunity to consolidate influence and stabilize the status of the Popular Mobilization Forces in the same form in which the IRGC operates.
In general, the factions that seek escalation against the government or US interests in Iraq reflect a fundamental shift that was not prominent during the former government and represents an imposition of a new reality on Iraq's security and political conditions.
