MILAN, Italy - Two House Republicans on Wednesday urged the US government to take strict measures against Iraq, including the cutting of aid and imposition of sanctions, on account of Baghdad’s “complete subjugation” Tehran.

In a letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Congressmen Joe Wilson and Greg Steube  called for cutting all foreign aid to Iraq, sanctioning Iraq’s importation of Iranian gas, and designating the Iraqi state-linked Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) as a foreign terrorist group, stating that “any campaign against the Iranian regime, will require an equally robust campaign against Iraqi institutions.”

“More than 4,400 American service members sacrificed their lives since the start of the Iraq War, yet today, Iraq stands as nothing more than a puppet of Tehran,” read the letter, blaming previous governments, specifically the Barack Obama administration, for empowering Iran’s control over Iraqi institutions, which the congressmen said have become “essential clients of the Iranian regime.”

The lawmakers accused high-ranking Iraqi officials of having close ties to Iran and being anti-US, including National Security Advisor and senior member of the Iran-backed Badr Organization Qassim al-Araji, Chief of Staff of the Iraqi army Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah, and head of the Counter-Terrorism Service Karim al-Tamimi.

Led by Shiite political leader Hadi al-Amiri, the Badr Organization was formed and led by Iranian officers in 1982 as military arm of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

“These same Iran-backed militias, now operating with legal authority under the PMF, have launched rocket attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria,” the letter stated.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella network of Iran-backed armed groups, claimed hundreds of attacks against Israeli and American targets between October 2023 and October 2024 in response to the war in Gaza.

Wilson has sponsored a legislation to designate the Badr Organization for years. In mid January he referred to Badr as “a sectarian extremist terrorist organization like ISIS.”

“Since 2015, the U.S. Department of State has provided Iraq with $1.25 billion in Foreign Military Financing, in addition to billions more in aid to Iraq’s Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense, despite these institutions being deeply infiltrated by Iranian proxies,” the letter noted.

The congressmen also accused Tehran of manipulating the political process in Iraq, as well as exploiting the country’s economic system for its own enrichment. The letter claims that “Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) has been implicated in a fuel-smuggling network that generates over $1 billion per year for Iran and its proxies.”

The lawmakers proposed six steps for the Donald Trump administration to take, aimed at severing Iran’s control over Iraq and preventing “further exploitation of American resources.”

The steps include designating the PMF and other Iran-backed armed groups as well as their financial backers, imposing sanctions to prohibit Iraq from importing Iranian gas, sanctioning Iraq’s financial institutions that accused supporting Iran, “especially Al-Rafidain Bank and the epayment system Qi-Card.”

The PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi, was formed upon a call by Iraq’s top Shiite authority, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, soon after the Islamic State (ISIS) took over large swathes of territory in Iraq. The force has been officially incorporated into the regular Iraqi defense forces, enjoying similar privileges as the Iraqi army.

The US in March declined to renew a sanctions waiver allowing Iraq to import electricity from Iran as part of President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran; another sanctions waiver remains in place by Washington, however, for Iraq to import natural gas from neighbor Iran.

Washington has previously pressured Baghdad to stem the flow of dollars into Iran, and has imposed sanctions on several Iraqi banks.

Other suggestions by the lawmakers include sanctioning Iraqi politicians and business associates who “facilitate Iran’s control of Iraq,” sanctioning entities and networks like SOMO which the congressmen claimed are “involved in illicit trade that funds Iran’s proxies,” and cutting foreign aid to Iraq “as long as it remains under Iran’s influence,”

“The Iraqi people do not want to be ruled by Iran’s terrorist proxies. They have spoken out against corruption and Iranian interference, but their efforts have been brutally suppressed by the very militias that our aid indirectly supports,” the congressmen added, calling on the US government to take “immediate action.”

In April, Wilson and Democratic Representative Jimmy Panetta proposed the Free Iraq From Iran Act, which calls for dismantling the PMF, sanctioning high-ranking individuals and Iraqi government entities, designating Iran-backed armed groups, and prohibiting Iraq from purchasing Iranian gas.

In February, a group of 12 Republican Congress members directed a letter to the new Washington administration, calling for the cessation of all security assistance to Iraq and imposition of terrorist designations on several armed factions who are part of the Iraqi state security apparatus due to their affiliation with Iran.