🖊 Nafiseh Kuhnavard, Senior Middle East Reporter for BBC, Beirut

One day after the U.S. and Saudi Arabia attacked Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) bases in Iraq, conflicting and contradictory speculations about the likelihood of retaliatory action by groups known as the so-called “Axis of Resistance” in Iraq against Saudi Arabia and U.S. bases have filled the media space in the region.

The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, affiliated with Hezbollah, reported—citing a source in the “Axis of Resistance in Iraq”—that these groups are reviewing a response to these attacks within the next 72 hours.

This comes while the PMF, in a statement published yesterday, gave the Iraqi government ten days to provide the government with the “necessary response” to these attacks.

The reactions were seen, on the one hand, as an effort by these groups to lower tensions and, on the other hand, as putting the young Iraqi prime minister in a bind; in the view of some of these groups, it points to a desire to take approaches aligned with the United States.

Especially since Mr. Trump, in his interview with Fox News yesterday, said that their attacks on Iraq were carried out in coordination with the Iraqi government—a claim Baghdad denies.

📷 Reuters