Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi has ordered the closure of offices belonging to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Iraq, Iraqi government sources told MBN on Wednesday.
The order also calls for the expulsion of any Houthi figures who are active alongside armed factions and in the country illegally, the sources said, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
MBN was unable to review the text of the order. Iraqi government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi told MBN: “There are no offices in Iraq belonging to the aforementioned group, and there is no need to issue a government decision to that effect, since the matter has no basis in the first place.”
The reported decision follows al-Zaidi’s first visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, major Houthi attacks on oil and civilian facilities in the kingdom, and Riyadh’s support for a military operation in Yemen against the Houthis, which the U.S. State Department has designated a foreign terrorist organization.
The Houthis have maintained a representative office in Baghdad for several years and expanded their presence through regional offices and joint coordination sites with armed factions aligned with Tehran, as well as activities involving drones and missiles, Iraqi intelligence sources told MBN.
Relations between Iraq and Saudi Arabia have been strained since late July, after drone attacks, launched from Iraq, targeted Saudi oil facilities. Iraqi investigations later said the drones had been launched from the country’s south, and al-Zaidi removed a senior military commander in Maysan and closed a border crossing with Iran in response.
MBN could not independently verify all details of the reported Houthi expansion.
Since at least December 2024, Washington has asked Baghdad to close the Houthi office responsible for coordination with the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of 50 to 70 militias largely backed by Tehran, according to press reports at the time.
In March 2025, the Iraqi government denied that the Houthis were active in Baghdad, following reports that the group’s offices in the capital had been closed.
Al-Zaidi canceled a planned visit to Riyadh on July 30, a day after a Saudi-U.S. strike hit the headquarters of factions within the PMF, killing 20 members, including one Houthi, according to reports. The strike was reportedly in response to attacks Riyadh said had been launched from Iraq and targeted Saudi oil facilities in the Eastern Province.
On Sept. 16, Jamal al-Dhari, secretary-general of the Iraqi National Project, a Sunni party that won one seat in Iraq’s 2021 parliamentary election, urged the prime minister to close Houthi offices after Saudi Arabia accused the group of targeting Mecca with a drone.
But Aqeel al-Raddini, a spokesman for former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s Victory Coalition, which belongs to the Shiite Coordination Framework, said the Framework would not close the Houthi office in Baghdad at Washington’s request and that the decision rested with the government, the London-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper reported Sept. 20.
The Framework, which includes parties and armed factions with close ties to Iran, nominated al-Zaidi as its consensus candidate for prime minister in April.
Adapted and translated from the original Arabic.
