Oops! Did the Iraqi government just outlaw Hezbollah and the Houthis?
Iraq sparked confusion after its official gazette listed Hezbollah and the Houthis as “terrorist groups,” before the government clarified it was an error and that only UN-listed Daesh and Al Qaeda affiliates were meant to be included.
A bureaucratic blunder in Baghdad has triggered regional confusion after an official Iraqi gazette appeared to designate Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi movement as “terrorist organisations” — only for the state news agency to later clarify that the listing was an error.
The controversy began when Issue No. 4848 of Iraq’s official gazette, Al-Waqa’i al-Iraqiya, published on November 17, 2025, included both groups on the country’s national terrorism list. The decision — attributed to an October 22 ruling by Iraq’s Committee for Freezing Terrorists’ Funds — stated that Hezbollah and the Houthis were being targeted for their alleged “participation in committing a terrorist act.” It also ordered the freeze of “all movable and immovable assets and economic resources” tied to the two groups.
The news was picked up by several regional news media platforms this week, adding to the confusion.
Neither Hezbollah nor the Houthis issued immediate comments. But the publication ignited swift speculation: was Iraq, a country with close ties to Iran and Iran-backed groups, truly sanctioning two key pillars of Tehran’s regional influence?
Soon, Iraq’s state news agency scrambled to issue a clarification — without explicitly naming the groups in question. The agency said that “what was published in the Justice Ministry's gazette about freezing the funds of Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis will be corrected,” Reuters reported.
The agency said a “correction will be made” by removing certain parties from the list, without naming the parties, and emphasised that Iraq’s asset-freezing measures were meant to apply exclusively to entities and individuals designated by the UN Security Council for ties to Daesh and Al Qaeda.
The wording suggested that the inclusion of Hezbollah and the Houthis may have stemmed from a technical or clerical misclassification rather than a dramatic policy shift.
Still, the episode raised eyebrows in diplomatic circles, given how sensitive Iraq’s balancing act is between Western counterterrorism frameworks and its alliances with Iran-aligned factions.
For now, Baghdad appears to be walking back the listing — but the brief, unexpected moment in which Hezbollah and the Houthis were officially classified as terrorist organisations in Iraq has left lingering questions about oversight, political pressure, and whether a simple administrative error can cause such a geopolitical stir.