ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iran can continue to intervene and tell militias to stop attacks on American targets if Tehran does not want to see regional conflict, a Pentagon spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“Our assessment is that Iran doesn't seek a wider regional conflict. We've said that from the beginning but they do support these militia groups that attack our forces,” Deputy Pentagon Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters. 

“So if Iran doesn't want to see a regional conflict, they can continue to intervene and to tell these groups to stop,” she added.

Singh’s statement comes after Reuters on Sunday reported that pro-Iran Iraqi armed groups suspended their attacks on US troops after a meeting with Esmail Qaani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, who had landed in Baghdad Airport on January 29 and met with the militia leaders.

According to Singh, while it is true that attacks on US targets by Iraqi militias have stopped, Iran's influence spreads wider than Iraq.

“We know Iran continues to support, whether it be IRGC-backed militias in Iraq and Syria, the Houthis, Hezbollah,” Singh said. “We have not seen attacks in Iraq and Syria since February 4th but we have seen certainly an uptick over the weekend in attacks from the Houthis on US forces and commercial shipping. So if Iran does have a role to play, it's certainly not doing it when it comes to the Houthis.”

According to Reuters’ report, which cited ten sources, Qaani told the militias to lay low as drawing American blood carried the risk of a heavy response.

When the US vowed revenge to the death of three US service members in Jordan, the pro-Iran Kataib Hezbollah was steadfast to suspend its operations against US targets immediately, however Qaani’s directives must not have landed well with all the militias at the time. 

When the US announced in January that it would respond to the death of three US service members in Jordan, unlike Kataib Hezbollah who in an official statement said they would suspend attacks on US forces, Nujaba stressed that their attacks would not stop.

However, no Iraqi militia has attacked any US targets for over two weeks, signaling the effectiveness of Qaani’s directives.

The PMF, though officially incorporated into the Iraqi armed forces, is described by many to share similar ideology with the Islamic Republic, and armed groups functioning under the PMF umbrella are considered part of the informal Iran-led axis of resistance in the region against Israel and western forces.