ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Iraqi government has frozen the assets of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis over their participation in “terrorist acts,” the Iraqi Official Gazette announced on Thursday. 

A decision issued by Iraq’s Committee for Freezing Terrorist Funds, published by the Official Gazette, ordered the “freezing of terrorist assets” of 24 entities. 

The entities in question include Hezbollah and Ansar Allah (Houthis), both on charges of “participating in committing a terrorist act,” according to the decision. 

The Committee for Freezing Terrorist Funds is affiliated with Iraq’s Council of Ministers and headed by Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) Governor Ali al-Alaq. It includes representatives from a spectrum of ministries, including the finance, foreign, and interior ministries, as well as the Integrity Commission and the Counter-Terrorism Service. 

The decision came despite a large portion of Iraqi society considering Hezbollah and the Houthis as legitimate resistance against the Israeli state. 

A myriad of Iraqi militia groups are also allied with Hezbollah and the Houthis. 

Hezbollah and the Houthis are key components of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” a network of proxy groups used by Tehran to expand its hegemony across the Middle East and counter Israeli and American interests. 

The anti-terror committee’s decision did not specify the “terrorist acts” committed by the groups.