Iraq withdraws Hezbollah, Houthis terror designation

Shafaq News – Baghdad

Iraq’s caretaker government on Thursday retracted its decision to classify Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis (Ansarallah) as terrorist organizations, saying the listing had been issued “by mistake.”

Read more: Iraq blacklists Hezbollah and Houthis, freezes their assets

In a statement, the Central Bank’s Committee for Freezing Terrorist Funds said its Resolution No. 61 of 2025—published in the Official Gazette Al-Waqai Al-Iraqiya, Issue 4848, on 17 November 2025—was based on a request from Malaysia and on UN Security Council Resolution 1373 concerning the freezing of assets belonging to individuals and entities associated with ISIS and al-Qaeda.

The committee explained that the published list “mistakenly” included several parties and groups “that have no terrorist links to either organization,” noting that the document was released before it was fully revised. It said the Official Gazette will be corrected to remove the unrelated entities.

A supporting document from the office of the Central Bank governor—signed by Deputy Governor and committee chairman Ammar Hamad Khalaf and addressed to the Cabinet Secretariat’s Terrorist Funds Freezing Department—confirmed the error.

The letter, dated 4 December 2025, requests the deletion of paragraphs 18 and 19 concerning Hezbollah and the Houthis from Resolution 61, stating that the committee had not approved any asset-freeze measures against them and that their inclusion occurred before the necessary amendments were added.

Read more: SLC condemns Iraq’s Hezbollah, Houthis terror listing as “US-driven”