Iraq has lurched from one crisis to another over the last 16 years since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Almost immediately, the Shiite-majority country faced a disenfranchised Sunni minority and some of those Sunnis formed the Al Qaeda insurgency in Iraq. At the time, both the U.S. and Iran maintained a presence in Iraq and were attempting to influence the country’s politics.

But in 2014, when the Islamic State invaded the country, it was Iran that came first to aid Iraq. It helped organize, train and arm a volunteer militia to help wrest back the vast swathes of territory taken by the terrorist group and then inserted itself in Iraq’s troubled political system.

Although the Islamic State is a far less potent force today and the militias are no longer needed, Iran pushed not only to persuade Iraq to keep them but to make them into political parties that would encourage Baghdad to lean toward Tehran instead of toward the West.

The United Nations Special representative to Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said the current situation in the country was urgent.

“Armed entities sabotaging the peaceful demonstrations, eroding the government’s credibility and ability to act, cannot be tolerated,” she said in a statement.