Influential Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has called on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and armed militias on to refrain from attacks involving Iraqi territory, warning against dragging the country into another war, Al Jazeera reports.

In a statement on X, Sadr said Iraq had not been used as a launching pad for attacks on Iran and that the Revolutionary Guards should therefore keep away from Iraqi soil. He added that “rogue militias must not give our brothers in the Gulf states a pretext to target our sacred land”.

He urged all sides not to “be drawn into the schemes of the Zionist-American enemy to incite brothers to fight and kill one another”.

Sadr condemned violations of Iraq’s sovereignty and what he called attempts by militias to “drag Iraq into a pointless war”. He called on the government to establish security and enforce state authority, and cautioned against “dormant terrorist cells” that could exploit sectarianism to destabilise Iraq.