Baghdad (Iraq), 16 October (H.S.): Iraq’s parliament has approved the appointment of Laith al-Khazali, a member of the Iran-backed Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq group, as Deputy Prime Minister. Al-Khazali is known for his staunch opposition to the United States and Israel. Washington has designated the group as a terrorist organisation. With the appointments, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s government has completed its formation.

The development comes as Iraq grapples with the repercussions of the US-Israeli war against Iran. On Thursday, lawmakers approved the appointments of three deputy prime ministers and 11 ministers, including Nayef al-Shammari as Defence Minister and Yasser al-Maliki as Interior Minister.

According to Al Jazeera, Laith al-Khazali is the brother of Qais al-Khazali, the leader of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq. In 2020, the United States designated the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation and identified both brothers as Specially Designated Global Terrorists. Washington cited attacks attributed to the group, including a 2007 incident in which five American soldiers were killed.

Prime Minister al-Zaidi said his government was facing serious economic and security challenges arising from the war.

The conflict began on February 28. Before the war, Iraq exported approximately 3.5 million barrels of oil per day through the Strait of Hormuz, with oil revenues accounting for around 90 per cent of government revenue. Al-Zaidi has also pledged to recover weapons from non-government armed groups and ensure the complete withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.

Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, whose Arabic name translates to the ‘League of the Righteous’, is a prominent Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary organisation in Iraq. It is also known as the ‘Khazali Network’ and wields considerable influence in the country’s political and security affairs.

The organisation was founded in 2006 by Qais al-Khazali. It initially emerged from the Mahdi Army, a militia associated with influential Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, but later broke away following ideological differences and developed into an independent organisation.

Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq follows a Shia Islamist ideology and maintains a strongly anti-American and anti-Israeli position. The group has received financial and military support from Iran’s Quds Force and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, according to the information provided in the report.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar