ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s Iran-aligned armed groups have demanded an end to the country’s financial dependence on the United States before agreeing to lay down their arms, a senior lawmaker close to the groups told Rudaw on Thursday, a day after US forces completed their withdrawal from Iraq.
The demand comes as the Iraqi government moves to bring all weapons under state control following the end of the US-led coalition’s military mission in the country.
Saud al-Saadi, head of the parliamentary faction of the Hoquq Movement - the political wing of Kata’ib Hezbollah - told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman that “the complete withdrawal of US and foreign forces, including Turkish troops; preventing foreign interference; and liberating Iraq’s financial decision-making, which has been used as leverage by the US Federal Reserve over Iraqi oil revenues,” are “among” the conditions set by the factions for laying down their weapons.
Kata’ib Hezbollah has previously demanded the withdrawal of US and Turkish troops, as well as the dissolution of the constitutionally sanctioned Peshmerga forces, as preconditions for disarming. However, the group has not previously publicly cited ending US oversight of Iraq’s oil revenues as a condition for laying down its arms.
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