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Iraq

Iraq’s Hardline Factions Refuse a Disarmament Others Have Accepted

2026-06-06

[InternationalContext] Iraq’s most powerful armed factions have begun responding to a renewed drive to bring all weapons under state authority. The political cover came from the Coordination Framework, which declared its support for “the monopoly of arms in the hands of the state”, and for separating the Popular Mobilization Forces from every political, party, and social framework. The Framework empowered Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, as commander-in-chief, to take the necessary measures, anchoring the move in the constitution, the 2016 PMF law, the government programme, and guidance from the powerful Shia marja’iyya.

Context: Implementation has passed to a three-man committee made up of Zaidi, former prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, and Badr leader Hadi al-Amiri. Its declared tasks read less like a disarmament order than a state-absorption checklist. The committee is to audit fighters, verify criminal records, count actual personnel, set a deadline for handing over weapons, distribute those personnel across ministries and security agencies, secure funding, and possibly create either a new security ministry for the PMF or an independent security body.

Three factions have publicly accepted the logic of delinking. Moqtada al-Sadr announced the separation of Saraya al-Salam from the Sadrist current and its attachment to the state, with its brigades to be folded into the Defence or Interior Ministry at the commander-in-chief’s discretion and their weapons handed to whichever body receives them. Asaib Ahl al-Haq followed on 2 June, declaring that it would sever its link to the PMF formations, confine its weapons to the state, and place itself under the commander-in-chief. It set up a central committee to inventory personnel, weapons, vehicles, and equipment before aligning with state institutions.

Kataib al-Imam Ali moved the same day, creating three committees: one for the inventory and handover of weapons, one for the families of its dead and wounded, and one for reintegrating personnel into state bodies. Ammar al-Hakim publicly praised Sadr, Qais al-Khazali, and Shibl al-Zaidi for the steps.

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Posted by:badanov

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