By Ahmed Rasheed and Timour Azhari

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Nervously watching Israel’s destructive campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon, Iraq is struggling to avoid getting drawn into the growing regional conflict as Iran-backed armed groups launch attacks against Israel from Iraqi soil, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Two decades after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq enjoys relative stability thanks to high revenues from oil sales that fund a services-based program that transformed much of the country in construction site.

Iraq does not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel and the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani is wary of regional conflicts that could affect its delicate balance between Washington and Tehran, two states with which it is allied.

Axios reported late Thursday that Israeli intelligence suggested Iran was preparing to attack Israel from Iraqi territory in the coming days, possibly before the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, citing two unidentified Israeli sources.

There was no immediate Iraqi comment.

The fallout from the regional conflict has already resulted in months of tit-for-tat attacks between Iranian-backed armed groups and US forces stationed in Iraq and the region, which only abated after the Iranian intervention in February.

The Sudanese government has failed to convince the Islamic Resistance in Iraq – a coalition of Iran-backed armed groups – to stop firing rockets and drones into Israel, according to four sources from Iran-backed armed groups. Iran and two government advisers.

Two visits to Iran by senior Iraqi security officials in the past two months, seeking Tehran’s help in reining in its allied Iraqi factions, failed, the sources said.

“The Iraqi delegation received a cold reception in Tehran… The response was: these groups have their own decision and it is up to them to decide how to support their brothers in Lebanon and Gaza,” said a senior Iraqi official. Iraqi security informed of the event. visits.

Baghdad has turned to Washington, asking U.S. officials to intervene with Israel to prevent retaliation for attacks, including one that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded more than 20 on October 4, the sources said. the first time such an attack has been reported in Washington. cause deaths.

“Washington understood the repercussions of possible Israeli strikes in Iraq and was committed to providing assistance,” an Iraqi Foreign Ministry official said.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Four militia sources said the Kataib Hezbollah and Nujaba groups, which are leading the attacks on Israel, warned the prime minister against pressuring them to cease their actions and pledged to continue their attacks as long as Israel would continue its operations in Gaza and Lebanon.

The issue divides parties within Iraq’s ruling coalition, all of which favor the Palestinian cause and view Israel as an enemy, although some differ over how Iraq should be involved in the regional confrontation.

Shiite leaders discussed the risk of repercussions from attacks on Israel and possible Israeli retaliation at two meetings in October, said Ahmed Kenani, a Shiite lawmaker in the ruling alliance.

The main players in the Shiite coalition view direct confrontation with Israel as counterproductive and potentially damaging for Iraq, according to four Shiite MPs.

“Groups that have rockets and drones should go to Gaza and Lebanon to fight Israel rather than push Iraq towards destruction,” said adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul Ameer Thuaiban.

Kataib Hezbollah, the most powerful armed faction, said Israel and the United States should pay the price for Israeli strikes against Iran last week.

Before the attack, senior Iraqi security officials told Reuters that any Israeli strike against Iran outside of what the sources called established rules of engagement could prompt pro-Iranian armed groups to significantly expand their attacks. against Israel and American assets in the region.

Mohammed Shummary, president of the Baghdad-based think tank Sumeria Foundation, said the growing regional conflict risked drawing Iraq’s Shiite Muslim parties, many of them heavily armed, into a confrontation that few initially had an appetite for.

“They are torn between maintaining their decision to keep Iraq out of confrontation and their ideological and political commitments to Lebanon’s Shiites and the broader axis of resistance, in a context of Israeli aggression who crossed all permitted red lines,” he told Reuters.

“If the confrontation escalates… this could mean not only continued attacks on Israeli targets but also the potential involvement of additional factions in larger and more complex operations,” he said. .

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; writing by Timour Azhari; editing by Daniel Wallis)