Baghdad: Iraq retracted a decision on Thursday to classify Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis as 'terrorist organizations,' saying the listing was 'mistakenly' issued. The official gazette, Al-Waqa'I al-Iraqiya, had published a decision from the Committee for Freezing Terrorists' Funds to designate the two groups as 'terrorist organizations' and freeze their assets.

According to Anadolu Agency, the committee later issued a statement explaining that the decision was based on a request from Malaysia and on UN Security Council Resolution 1373, which pertains to the freezing of assets of individuals and entities associated with ISIS (Daesh) and al-Qaeda terror groups. The committee acknowledged that the list 'mistakenly' included several parties and groups 'that have no terrorist links to either organization,' specifically referring to Hezbollah and Houthis.

The committee further clarified that the document was released before it was fully revised and assured that the official gazette will be corrected to remove the unrelated entities. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah or the Houthis on the Iraqi move.