In the June 2025 Israel-Iran war that may reshape the Middle East—for which Iran has prepared for decades—Tehran’s myriad militias, proxies, and allies in the region were nowhere to be seen. Hezbollah lies in ruins, Bashar al-Assad has fled Syria, and Hamas is besieged in Gaza. Only the Houthis fired anything, and that was merely symbolic.
Everyone knew that Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis would be ineffectual or absent, but the silence of pro-Iranian militias in Iraq surprised people, because ever since America invaded Iraq in 2003, Tehran has been arming, training, and backing Iraqi Shiite militias, whose members these days number in the hundreds of thousands. Yet when Israel began bombing, they did nothing, even as Iran-bound ballistic missiles flew over their heads.
Does this mean that Iraq is finally stepping out from under Iran’s shadow? Is this the beginning of a strategic realignment? Or is Iran still as deeply embedded in Iraq as it has been since the fall of Saddam Hussein? Our cover story in the Al Majalla August edition unpacks and explores the issue, looking in-depth at Iraq’s current situation, with analysis from different perspectives.
Read more:
1. Can Iraq escape Iran’s shadow? by Ibrahim Hamidi
2. Why escaping Iran's grip is harder for Iraq by Robert Ford
3. Iran's weakened hand in Iraq shows US pressure is working by Al Majalla, London
4. Iraq's US-Iran balancing act faces crunch time by Ayad Al-Anbar
