In a fresh escalation on Iraq’s crowded political stage, Iran-linked militias have launched a fierce campaign against the U.S. president’s envoy to Baghdad, Mark Savaya, going as far as issuing direct threats.

Tensions between Iran and the Gulf states have spiked sharply in the wake of a GCC summit in Manama, where member countries renewed their call for Tehran to end its “occupation” of the three Emirati islands.

In a move that sent political shockwaves through Iraq, the Official Gazette published a decision listing Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi group as terrorist organizations, a step the Iraqi central bank later walked back, calling it an “unintentional mistake.”

Lebanon’s Shia community is caught between Iraq’s Najaf and Iran’s Qom, as al-Sistani warns against Iranian influence and Hezbollah’s armed role amid regional power struggles.

Iraq’s Shiite political forces have signed an agreement to form the largest parliamentary bloc after the Reconstruction and Development Coalition led by Mohammed Shia’ al Sudani joined the Coordination Framework.