Iran’s other army

Published in the Jerusalem Post, 25 August 2026

A network of Iran-linked Shiite militias is operating in Iraq.  Taken together, they are an extremely powerful military force.

When the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) launched ballistic missiles at US forces in Jordan on July 28, the US, in association with Saudi Arabia, did not aim its response at the IRGC direct.  They struck a number of​ the Iraq-based militias​ instead, accusing them of past attacks on US forces and carrying out drone strikes on Saudi oil facilities, acting under the direction of the IRGC.   

In short the US and its allies have recognized that the militias are in effect an integral part of the Iranian military, a functioning wing of the IRGC.

This network of Shiite militias, spread across Iraq, was put together by Qassem Soleimani, the one-time commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force.  Responsible for Iran’s external operations and covert activities, it took him roughly 17 years – from the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq until his death in 2020 by a US drone​, on the orders of US President Donald Trump. 

His network has since become an invaluable adjunct to Iran’s military potential. The militias, with Iranian financial and military support, have accrued arsenals which include long-range missiles and anti-aircraft weapons.  They are, in short, a formidable proxy army capable of engaging the US and Arab countries in long, costly conflict.

That was precisely Soleimani’s intention.  The militias were built to fight Iran’s enemies beyond its borders, dragging conflict away from the Islamic Republic itself.  With the US and Saudi Arabia striking Iraq instead of Iran, Soleimani’s plan appears to be working.

The UK’s Daily Telegraph reported a Tehran-based analyst’s opinion of the militias.  “They have the potential to expand the war to Iraq and add more actors into it. Their main job is to move the war from Iran to Iraq…If America wants to destroy them, it is a matter of one week. But that would officially bring the war to Iraq, and this is what Iran wants. More actors and fronts will make it expensive and hard for Trump to carry on.”

Most of these Iran-aligned factions are nominally part of the Iraqi state's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). The PMF as a whole is an umbrella organization comprised of dozens of militias that were mobilized in 2014 to fight ISIS. In 2016, Iraq formally incorporated the PMF, which numbers well over 200,000 personnel, into the state's security structure. It remains separate from the army and operates through its own command framework under the Iraqi government. In practice, however, the framework is loose and the main factions retain their own chains of command, intelligence networks, missile and drone arsenals, and political organizations, giving them ​substantial autonomy from the Iraqi state.​

The principal Iran-aligned militia organizations operating within Iraq include Kataib Hezbollah, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, the Badr Organization, and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada. They are estimated to field around 50,000 frontline fighters.

Despite recent US and allied strikes, which have damaged their facilities and killed commanders, they remain militarily formidable. They possess rockets, ballistic missiles, armed drones, anti-tank weapons and sophisticated intelligence capabilities. Several have extensive combat experience from Iraq, Syria and, more recently, operations linked to the wider Iran-Israel-US confrontation.

Moreover, rather like the position that Hezbollah in its heyday achieved within Lebanon, the militia organizations have embedded themselves deeply in Iraq’s political, economic and social fabric.  Many militia leaders also head political parties represented in parliament, hold ministerial portfolios or influence appointments throughout the security bureaucracy.  Moreover they command substantial financial resources through various economic enterprises, border crossings and reconstruction contracts.

Not all the money acquired is illicit.  Many PMF units are officially part of Iraq's security apparatus and receive government funding.  Salaries, equipment, and operational budgets come from the Iraqi state budget and are legal.

But Iraq's borders with Iran, Syria, and other neighbors handle billions of dollars in trade annually. Reports from Iraqi officials, researchers, and international organizations have described militia influence at certain border crossings, where groups allegedly extract unofficial "fees" from importers and truckers, facilitate smuggling operations, manipulate customs procedures and gain control over transportation and logistics services.

After the war against Isis, Iraq set aside large amounts of finance for rebuilding damaged cities and infrastructure.  Militia-linked businessmen and companies have been accused of winning government contracts through political influence, demanding kickbacks from contractors seeking permits or security access, and controlling local economic activity in areas where the militia is dominant.

Consequently, the Iran-linked militias function not merely as armed groups, but as an entrenched political-economic network embedded within the Iraqi state.

This is a situation that Iraq’s recently elected prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi – very much like Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun – finds intolerable. 

Both have declared their intention to bring all non-state military groups within their respective nation‘s control.  Al-Zaidi has gone so far as to set September 2026 as a target for significant progress. His pledge enjoys support from Washington and from many Iraqis who wish to strengthen national sovereignty.

He faces formidable obstacles.  The strongest militias reject complete disarmament. With powerful parliamentary allies and independent sources of finance, they are in a position to frustrate any attempt by al-Zaidi to bring them under government authority.  In any case, many of those within the groups do not see themselves as part of Iraq’s security forces, but as integral to Iran's wider "Axis of Resistance".

A complete dismantling of these organizations therefore appears unlikely in the short term.  Al-Zaidi may succeed in reducing their autonomy, but not in eliminating their independent military and political influence. 

An Iranian official is reported in the Telegraph as describing the militias as “indispensable”. 

“They are the backbone of the resistance forces in the region,” he said, “and their nature of multiple groups and closeness to Iran are their biggest strengths.”  He added that “some of them were in Iran during the war to help our armed forces control the streets” – that is, to subdue anti-government protesters – an indication of how deeply the militias are woven into Iran’s war machine.

For the foreseeable future Iran can continue to rely on this substantial external military power to bolster its own military capacity.

Published in the Jerusalem Post, and the Jerusalem Post online titled: "Iran's powerful militia network could expand war", 25 August 2026:
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-906410

Israel in Gaza

 This letter appears in the Daily Telegraph today,  25 August 2026:

Sir

Tony Greenstein, seemingly endorsed by Gary Lineker, states as undisputed fact  that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza (report,  August 24). But “genocide” is a precise legal term, requiring proof of an intention to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected group. It should not be treated as a synonym for a high civilian death toll.

The demographic record is relevant to any alleged genocidal intent. When Israel captured the Gaza Strip in 1967, a census recorded about 355,000 residents. The latest Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimate puts Gaza’s population at about 2.11 million. The population has therefore increased roughly sixfold since 1967. It is difficult to reconcile this with the assertion that Israel’s aim has been the destruction of the Palestinian people.

In fact Israel’s declared objective since October 7, 2023 has been the defeat of Hamas, whose 1988 charter called for the destruction of Israel and contained virulently antisemitic language. Hamas’s extensive military infrastructure, including its tunnel network, was embedded within a densely populated civilian environment, making military operations extremely hazardous for civilians.  This is why  the number of Palestinian deaths cannot establish genocidal intent.

It is positively denied by Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, who said during the Gaza conflict: “The IDF is also operating within the laws of armed conflict, doing its best to minimise civilian casualties, including by warning people to leave areas it is about to attack.”

Nor should Gaza casualty figures be treated as infallible. The records of the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health have been subject to methodological criticism and, it is now accepted, require careful interpretation.

The charge of genocide deserves evidence and argument, not constant assertion in the hope that the aphorism often attributed to Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, will prevail: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Published in the Daily Telegraph titled: "Israel's intent in Gaza":
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2026/08/25/letters-paralysing-effect-public-sector-productivity-crisis/

Gaza’s anti-Hamas militias

 Published in the Jerusalem Post, 18 August 2026

        Hamas's internal security and counter-intelligence apparatus in Gaza includes a specialized unit known as the Radaa Force.  It is focused on monitoring threats to Hamas from rival factions, and in identifying dissidents, suspected informants and “collaborators” working with Israel.

The size, command structure, and exact responsibilities of the Radaa Force are uncertain; Hamas has revealed few details about it. Its name derives from an Arabic root meaning “deterrence” or “prevention”.

On August 6 Radaa issued an appeal to the Gazan public in general, and to members of anti-Hamas militia groups in particular, urging them to assassinate the leaders of those bodies.

“We say to all members of the collaborator gangs,” ran the Radaa Force statement, “that assassinating senior collaborators in these groups will be your salvation – before us, and before your people.”

What are these anti-Hamas militia groups, and who are their leaders?

The most internationally visible, and arguably most consequential, of the anti-Hamas armed network in Gaza is known as the “Popular Forces”.   Originally led by Yasser Abu Shabab until his death in December 2025, it is now under the leadership of Ghassan Duhine, his deputy.  It is the only anti-Hamas force that appears to have reached battalion-scale strength. Estimates in open sources range up to 700 fighters.  

The Popular Forces emerged in southern Gaza, especially around Rafah.  On June 5, 2025, in a video statement responding to allegations by former defense minister Avigdor Lieberman, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that Israel had "activated" and supported clans in Gaza opposed to Hamas. Subsequent reporting by the Associated Press and other outlets identified Abu Shabab's Popular Forces as one of the groups receiving such support.

Reported assistance included weapons, intelligence, logistical support, access to Israeli-controlled areas, and protection from Hamas.  The reported activities of the Popular Forces include an attack on a Hamas facility near Khan Younis that the group alleged was being used to store aid confiscated by Hamas.  They also participate in intelligence gathering against Hamas, securing aid convoys and routes near Israeli-controlled areas, and protecting access routes to aid distribution points.

Unlike Fatah, the Popular Forces do not prioritize Palestinian nationalism or a state-building ideology.  Abu Shabab publicly condemned the brutal onslaught on October 7, 2023 and argued Hamas had brought catastrophe on Gaza.

Politically, this group is the least clearly ideological of the major formations. Its motivations seem to combine anti-Hamas hostility, tribal autonomy, economic interests, personal power, and dependence upon Israeli patronage. Its principal political proposition is effectively that Hamas must be removed and that local Palestinian actors should assume control.

The Popular Forces’ politics are moved partly by clan interests.  The Abu Shabab clan is a large family network in the Rafah area of southern Gaza, connected to the larger transborder Tarabin tribal network, which extends into Sinai. Its priorities are protecting its local influence, its territory, economic resources, and clan autonomy.

Hamas has traditionally sought to subordinate armed groups and local power brokers to its own authority.  During periods when Hamas's control has weakened because of war, some clans – the Popular Forces among them – have sought to expand their own security and political roles.

The second particularly important anti-Hamas organization in Gaza is the Counter-Terrorism Strike Force (CTSF), centered on Khan Younis and commanded by Hussam al-Astal. Al-Astal has a security service background within the Palestinian Authority, and his opposition to Hamas is more political and institutional than purely tribal.

The declared objective of the CTSF (sometimes known simply as the Anti-Terror Force), is the removal of Hamas and the establishment of an alternative security authority.  Al-Astal portrays his organization as an independent Palestinian anti-Hamas force, though there is significant evidence of operational cooperation with Israel. 

The group crossed an important threshold on January 12, 2026, when gunmen killed Mahmoud al-Astal, a senior Hamas police officer.  Hussam al-Astal's organization publicly claimed responsibility.  Hamas described the perpetrators as Israeli collaborators.

The common surname is almost certainly not accidental. Mahmoud al-Astal and Hussam al-Astal appear to have belonged to the same extended al-Astal clan, but they were aligned with opposing political-military camps.  Publicly available sources do not identify their precise familial relationship.

The Hellis clan represents a third category of anti-Hamas groupings.

The Hellis family, long associated with Fatah, has opposed Hamas's rule ever since the terrorist organization seized control of Gaza in 2007.  Its most important contemporary figure is Rami Hellis, who has reportedly formed an armed network with Ahmed Jundeya, another prominent local figure from Shejaiya, a large neighborhood in the eastern part of Gaza City.

Their forces have operated in areas under Israeli control, and have resisted Hamas attempts to re-establish its authority in the area.  Reuters describes the Hellis/Jundeya network as one of the principal armed challenges to Hamas following the 2025 ceasefire.

The al-Majayda clan is based around Khan Younis and it, too, has become involved in the struggle over postwar authority.  Members have clashed with Hamas during attempts by Hamas security forces to arrest suspects.  Although the clan has criticized Hamas's use of extrajudicial violence, its political position is notably ambiguous. At least one senior al-Majayda figure subsequently expressed support for Hamas's efforts to restore order.

The al-Majayda clan has been linked to the CTSF through local alliances and cooperation, although the clan and the militia are distinct entities.

The Doghmosh clan is somewhat different from the others. It is not primarily an Israeli-backed militia. It is one of Gaza's longstanding armed families and has historically shifted between relationships with Hamas, Fatah, Salafist groups, and independent activity.

Back in October 2025 armed members of the clan fought Hamas forces in Gaza City and it  was described as a significant armed rival to Hamas. Currently there does not seem to be a formal Doghmosh militia. 

As for the 20-point Trump peace plan for Gaza, there is no evidence that any major anti-Hamas militia has formally adopted the plan as its platform.  Some – especially the Popular Forces – have objectives that do overlap with key parts of the plan, particularly supporting a post-Hamas administration after ending Hamas rule.  Others – anti-Hamas though they are – seem more intent on pursuing their own more narrow interests.

Iran’s last effective proxy

Published in the Jerusalem Post, 11 August 2026

With Hamas and Hezbollah substantially weakened, Iran is increasingly relying on the Houthis as its principal remaining proxy capable of exerting sustained military and economic pressure on the US and its regional partners.  Currently, as a complement to Iran's campaign in the Strait of Hormuz, the Houthis are attempting to exploit their control of the Bab al-Mandab strait, situated at the foot of the Red Sea and controlling access to the Suez Canal. 

Simultaneously with harrying the shipping in the strait, they are striking targets in Saudi Arabia in conjunction with Iran, whose 2023 pact with Saudi has been consigned to the trash. 

On February 28, 2026, in response to the US-Israeli attack, Iran launched missiles and armed drones against Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, mainly because they harbored US bases, but also to punish and deter both Saudi and other governments for their close connection to the US.

Iranian strikes were reported to have hit energy facilities in Saudi, including igniting a fire at the Ras Tanura oil refinery. The Prince Sultan Air Base was also targeted by drone attacks, then and later.

On July 16, Reuters, citing multiple regional and Iranian sources, reported that Iran had instructed the Houthis to prepare to close the Bab al-Mandab strait.  The directive to do so would be given if the US struck Iran's power grid or energy infrastructure.

Although the order was described as a contingency directive, the Houthis reportedly began positioning missiles and drones near the strait while awaiting any further authorization.

Four days later, on July 20, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree appeared on television to announce that "a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy" would be imposed immediately.

He described it as an "eye for an eye" measure, in response to what the Houthis called Saudi Arabia's long-running blockade of Yemen, and a recent attack on Sanaa’s International Airport.

The result is a second maritime chokepoint, augmenting Iran’s pressure on international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.  The Houthis are targeting Saudi oil exports and commercial tankers using Saudi ports, thus attempting to close off the principal alternative export route available after disruptions in Hormuz.  The operation as a whole is, in effect, a joint effort by Iran and its Yemeni ally to exert maximum pressure on global oil markets.

A few days later, in response, the Saudi-led coalition struck Houthi targets in Yemen.

In short, Iran-Saudi rivalry is being fought out mainly on the Houthi front, the crisis is being sustained by Houthi military action, and the Saudi coalition clearly regards the Houthis as part of Iran’s regional leverage network.

But Saree’s TV address clearly revealed that, from the Houthi’s point of view, two wars are overlapping, and in taking up the fight, the Houthis are killing two birds with one stone.  Saree referred to Saudi Arabia’s “blockade” of Yemen, and its strike against the airport at Sanaa, once Yemen’s capital.  So in attacking Saudi Arabia the Houthis are not only acting in direct support of Iran, but they are also striking at the ally of their main opponent in Yemen’s long-running civil war – the internationally recognized Yemeni government.

Since 2014 the Houthis, having overthrown the official government, have controlled Sanaa and much of north-western Yemen. That government – now based principally in Aden – continues to be recognized by the UN and receives military and financial backing from Saudi Arabia.

Saudi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) was alarmed at the prospect of Iran gaining a foothold on the Arabian Peninsula, and in 2015, with the civil war at its height, intervened militarily.  He formed a coalition whose declared objective was to restore the internationally recognized Yemeni government, and prevent the emergence of an Iranian-aligned regime on his country’s southern border.

Although a UN-brokered truce in 2022 substantially reduced cross-border fighting, it never resolved the underlying political conflict. The Houthis retained control of the capital and most of Yemen's population centers in the northwest, while the recognized government retained international legitimacy but exercised authority over only part of the country.

Accordingly, from the Houthi perspective, Saudi Arabia remains not merely a regional rival, but the principal foreign military supporter of its domestic enemy.  Conversely, from Riyadh's perspective, the Houthis are an armed insurgent movement backed by Iran that displaced Yemen's legitimate government.

Most intelligence services and academic experts now reject earlier characterizations of the Houthis as merely "Iranian puppets."  They are currently seen more as partners with overlapping interests but independent agendas.  Iran provides support because the Houthis advance Tehran's regional interests, while the Houthis, retaining significant autonomy in decision-making, accept support because it enhances their military and political position.  Both sides derive substantial benefits.

Particularly since October 7, Iran has reportedly supplied the Houthis with missile and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology, including training, intelligence and financial support, and diplomatic backing.  The Houthis, meanwhile, provide Iran with pressure on Saudi Arabia and on Red Sea shipping, leverage against Israel and a relatively inexpensive means of projecting regional influence.

            Two possible developments might cause the mutually beneficial partnership to disintegrate. The first, and perhaps the more plausible, would be a decisive weakening or collapse of the Iranian regime following a renewed US military campaign, should the Trump administration in the future conclude that Tehran remained irredeemably hostile and that diplomatic options had been exhausted. Such an outcome could deprive the Houthis of their principal source of advanced military technology, training, and political backing, forcing them to pursue a more independent course.

          A second, less likely possibility would arise if sustained efforts by Hans Grundberg, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, succeeded in bringing the principal parties to the civil war into meaningful negotiations, securing a durable ceasefire and a comprehensive political settlement. Were the Houthis to become stakeholders in a recognized governing arrangement, their incentives could shift toward economic reconstruction, international legitimacy, and stable regional relations, reducing the strategic value of close alignment with Iran.

          For the moment, though, the liaison is firm, and the Houthis have become Iran's only major proxy capable of exercising direct international pressure by threatening world oil supplies.

Published in the Jerusalem Post and the Jerusalem Post online titled: "Are the Houthis Iran's last gaming card?", 11 August 2026:

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-905067

Published in Eurasia Review, 14 August 2026:

https://www.eurasiareview.com/14082026-irans-last-effective-proxy-oped/

 

 

Israel on Trial

My review of "Israel on Trial:  Examining the History, the Evidence, and the Law" 

by Roy K Altman

Published in the Jerusalem Post Weekend Magazine, 7 August 2026

   Roy K. Altman, a graduate of Columbia University, served as a federal prosecutor for the US Court of Appeals before being appointed a US District Judge for the Southern District of Florida – at the time the youngest district judge ever so appointed.

In his new book, Israel on Trial, he takes the six accusations most widely levied against Israel and subjects them to what he calls “the legal methodology judges, juries and lawyers have used for centuries.”  He sets out the evidence for and against each of the crimes that Israel is charged with, and scrutinizes it forensically, using the time-honored rules of evidence that he applies consistently in his own courtroom.

The six allegations that he subjects to this scrupulous analysis are first that Jews are colonists in the Land of Israel; then that the founding of the State of Israel was illegitimate; that Israel has prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state;  that Israel was occupying Gaza before October 7, 2023 and had turned it into an “open-air prison”; that Israel is an apartheid state; and that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

Using factual, historical, archeological, even the latest genealogical evidence, he demonstrates the shaky, unreliable, often illogical nature of the charges that have become routine among those who reject Israel’s right to exist. 

Why is Altman’s book so important, indeed vital?  After all, his conclusions, solidly based though they are, will certainly not convince committed anti-Zionists, while pro-Israel advocates will already be familiar with them.

No, it is the ordinary every-day Jew faced with irrational antisemitic hatred – the person in the workplace, shopping center or social setting, the young person in the classroom or campus – that needs, and will surely welcome, Israel on Trial.   In these pages Altman provides a convincing fact-based rebuttal to the anti-Israel tropes that are so casually tossed around these days.

There are also vast numbers of largely uncommitted people across the globe who are subject to a constant flood of false narratives about Israel, Zionism and the Jewish people.  If only some could be enticed to open the pages of Israel on Trial, they would discover that there is an antidote for the poison they are perpetually fed.

To the charge that Jews are colonists, he begins with the accepted definition of “colonist” – “an outsider with no historical, linguistic, cultural or religious connection to the land he is conquering.”   Then he demonstrates that “the Jews were living in (and often governing) the Land of Israel thousands of years before Islam existed, hundreds of years before the Roman emperor Hadrian invented the word Palaestina…and long before Arab Muslims first invaded the land in AD 636.”

As for Israel’s legitimacy, Altman rebuts the assertion that the “biblical promise is Israel’s only claim to legitimacy”.  He asserts that the criteria set out in the 1933 Montevideo treaty are universally accepted as international law on the subject of legitimate statehood.  A nascent state has to fulfil four requirements:  have a permanent population, have a defined territory, be governed by a single effective government, and have the capacity to conduct foreign relations.

Altman points out that when Israel declared independence in May 1948, it met all four criteria.

As to the claim that Israel has prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state, Altman cites the six occasions that Israel (or the international community with Israeli acquiescence), “has offered the Arabs a Palestinian state – and, each time, the Arabs have rejected that offer.”

Each of those attempts, says Altman, was thwarted “by the Palestinians’ own demand for an Arab state that stretches ‘from the river to the sea’.”  

To the charge that Israel was occupying Gaza on October 7, 2023 and had turned it into an “open-air prison” or a concentration camp, Altman sets out the irrefutable historic facts, linked to the commonly understood meaning of both “prison” and “concentration camp, which prove the reverse. 

His Chapter 5 is concerned with the widely-voiced charge that Israel is an apartheid state. In addition to setting out the irrefutable facts concerning the equal status and rights of the 20% of Israel’s Arab citizens, Altman lays bare a inherent illogicality in the extreme anti-Israel position. 

“True,” he writes, “the Palestinians who live in Gaza and in parts of Judea and Samaria enjoy none of these rights in Israel. But that’s because they don’t live in Israel, don’t want to live in Israel, and thus aren’t Israeli citizens at all.” 

More than 140 countries around the world, he notes, as well as many of the organizations and individuals asserting the apartheid claim recognize the State of Palestine.

 “Israel cannot be practicing apartheid by refusing to afford citizenship rights to the citizens of another country,” writes Altman,”…but that’s exactly what Amnesty International, for instance, is suggesting when, on the one hand, it recognizes the existence of a “State of Palestine,” while on the other, it claims that Israel is an apartheid state for refusing to afford full citizenship rights to the citizens of that Palestinian state.”

And so Altman reaches the assertion repeated ad nauseam – that Israel committed, and continues to commit, genocide against the Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza.  It is an accusation, as Altman demonstrates, that relies on re-interpreting the meaning of the word “genocide”.  It is used by many as a measure of their antipathy to the loss of civilian life during Israel’s fight against Hamas.  But the term “genocide” has a very specific meaning.

Altman makes it abundantly clear that he regards the loss of a single civilian life in war as a tragedy.  However, “the question in a genocide case isn’t whether innocent civilians have died in Gaza. They unquestionably have—just as they have in every war that’s ever been fought.”

The essence of the crime of genocide is the specific “intent to destroy” the victim group’s existence. To be guilty of genocide, the State of Israel must have intended to wipe out the population of Gaza.  Altman demonstrates, with irrefutable facts and figures, that Israel did not have, and never has had, any such intention.

In Israel on Trial Altman provides all who love Israel with sound evidence-based arguments to counter the disinformation that clogs the social media platforms and so often the official news media as well. It is a book entirely in tune with the times, and is highly recommended.

Published in the Jerusalem Post online:
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-904749

The new US-Syria-Iraq connection

Published in the Jerusalem Post, 4 August 2026

On July 8, on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, US President Donald Trump had a face-to-face meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

According to the official Syrian read-out and US reporting, they discussed strengthening US-Syrian relations, Syria’s economic recovery, and foreign investment. Following their meeting Trump announced he was removing Syria from the US list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, a designation Syria had borne since 1979.

Reuters reported that Trump handed Sharaa a personal letter during the meeting. The key passages were: "I promised to remove all barriers stopping you from rebuilding your country, and very soon, you will finally be able to do so," and "We have US companies ready to invest in Syria and help make your country greater and more prosperous than ever before."

Speaking to the media after their meeting, Trump praised Sharaa in unusually strong terms.  He’s: “doing an unbelievable job in unifying Syria….Syria was a mess…now it's just come together….He's done a fantastic job."  All the indications are that Trump has decided to adopt post-Assad Syria as a working partner in developing a reinvigorated Middle East.

One week later, Trump was entertaining Iraq’s prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, at the White House. 

Once again the meeting was notable for its tone. Trump repeatedly praised Zaidi and spoke of their "tremendous chemistry."  He made it clear that he regarded Iraq’s new prime minister also as a partner with whom Washington could build a stronger long-term relationship.

The discussion covered expanding economic relations between the two countries, while both sides endorsed a series of memoranda of understanding (MoU) involving US participation in Iraq's oil and gas sector.  Zaidi reiterated his government's intention of bringing all armed groups, including Iran-backed militias, under state control, while confirming that the remaining US forces in Iraq are expected to complete their withdrawal by September 30, 2026.

What was not specifically referred to by either party – and not mentioned either following Trump’s discussion with Sharaa – was the US-Syria-Iraq plan to revive the historic 500-mile pipeline from the oilfields of Kirkuk in northern Iraq to the town of Baniyas, on Syria's Mediterranean coast – a determined effort to reduce Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Tom Barrack, Trump’s ambassador to Turkey and envoy to Syria and Iraq, had been working on the details of the agreement before Zaidi’s visit. 

The pipeline was completed in 1952 by Iraq’s Petroleum Company with a capacity of around 300,000 barrels per day.  Baghdad shut the pipeline in the 1980s after Syria sided with Iran during the Iran-Iraq war.

The pipeline will almost certainly have to be wholly replaced – a project calculated to last up to three years.  ​

A glance at the map shows that reviving the pipeline would give Iraq a strategic alternative to exporting oil through the Strait of Hormuz. Unlike Gulf exports, shipments through the Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline would avoid the Persian Gulf altogether.  It would spare tankers the need to negotiate the strategic Hormuz chokepoint on both their outbound and return voyages. Oil reaching Syria's Mediterranean coast via the pipeline could be shipped directly to European markets.

Routing Iraqi oil this way could cut a tanker's voyage to European refineries by roughly 3,000 nautical miles and more than a week at sea, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in normal shipping costs while avoiding the war-risk insurance and disruption associated with the Strait of Hormuz.

Although it has clearly been agreed between the parties to keep the resurrection of the historic pipeline low-key, Reuters and other media outlets indicate that the project has advanced well beyond the conceptual stage. It is claimed that the US is officially backing restoration of the 891 km (about 550 mile) long pipeline, and that the US expects American firms to take part in rebuilding the line. Chevron has been widely mentioned as a potential participant, although the company has declined to comment publicly. 

Other pipeline projects with outlets on Syria’s Mediterranean coast are also under consideration, and could link major energy producers in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, directly to Syria’s ports.  ​Indeed, with Syria shorn of its sanctions and established as a fully-fledged partner, it ​has the potential to become a​ major energy transit hub. ​ It has about 2.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, ​but some geological estimates suggest its undiscovered onshore and offshore petroleum resources could ultimately exceed 20 billion barrels.

In February 2026, Chevron signed a memorandum of understanding with Syria's state-owned petroleum company and Qatar's Power International Holding to develop the country's first offshore oil and gas field. Days later, Saudi and American energy companies formed a consortium to explore four or five oil and gas blocks and rebuild energy infrastructure in north-east Syria. 

Finding gas is, of course, only the beginning. Syria would ultimately need to sell it. Trump's decision to remove Syria from the US list of State Sponsors of Terrorism signals that Washington now regards Sharaa's government as a legitimate partner. That political endorsement encourages investors who might otherwise have stayed away, and it makes it much easier to construct pipelines, use Mediterranean export terminals, attract investment and conclude long-term gas sales contracts with foreign buyers.

Were Israel to follow Trump’s lead in considering Syria's potential as a commercial partner, several hazards would need to be overcome.  One is the strong influence that Turkey, no friend of Israel, exercises on Sharaa.  

Then there is the fact that Russia has retained a significant military and commercial presence in Syria.  President Vladimir Putin has preserved his strategic foothold on the eastern Mediterranean, having negotiated continued access to Russia’s naval facility at Tartus and its Khmeimim air base near Latakia.​  At the same time, according to reliable media reports, a Russian commercial logistics hub is expected to become operational at Tartus very soon, handling Russian cargo and providing a maritime link between the Syrian coast and Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

Trump seems determined to enfold both Syria’s Sharaa and Iraq’s al-Zaidi into a close commercial and economic embrace.  In Israel, however, both are viewed rather more cautiously.  Trust cannot simply be bestowed; it will have to be earned.

Published in the Jerusalem Post and the Jerusalem Post online titled "Trump’s Syria-Iraq pipeline plan aims to weaken Iran’s leverage", 4 August 2026:
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-904406

Published in Eurasia Review, 13 August 2026

https://www.eurasiareview.com/08082026-the-new-us-syria-iraq-connection-oped/