Influential Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urged his country Thursday to stay out of the fighting in neighbouring Syria triggered by a lightning rebel offensive launched last week.
Sadr stressed in a post on X the "necessity of Iraq's government, people, parties, militias and security forces not getting involved in the Syrian issue", urging the government to "punish all those who violate... security".
Syrian Islamist rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani had earlier called on Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to keep his country distant from Syria's war.
Iraq's powerful Iran-aligned Kataeb Hezbollah armed group on Monday called on Baghdad to send troops to Syria to support the Damascus government.
Kataeb Hezbollah is part of the so-called "axis of resistance" backed by Iran and opposed to Israel and the US presence in the region.
In Iraq, it is part of the Hashed al-Shaabi, a coalition of former paramilitary forces now integrated into the regular armed forces.
On Thursday, Jolani urged Sudani to "prevent the Iraqi Hashed al-Shaabi from interfering in what is happening in Syria".
"There are many fears and illusions -- that some Iraqi politicians believe -- that what is happening in Syria will extend to Iraq. I say firmly that this is 100 percent wrong."
An Iraqi government official told AFP that Baghdad's "red line" would be crossed if the rebels advanced towards eastern Syria, near the border with Iraq, or towards the capital Damascus and the Shia shrine of Sayeda Zeinab in its southern suburbs.
An official from a leading Iran-backed Iraqi armed group meanwhile acknowledged that involvement in Syria would be "difficult", citing the fear of Israeli or US strikes.
"We have our own secure routes if we want to reach the front, but until now this decision has not been taken," the official said on condition of anonymity."