Shafaq News– BaghdadThe commander of Iran’s Quds Force,Esmail Qaani, made a brief, unannounced visit to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad,within the past 48 hours, during which he met with several leaders of Iraqiarmed factions, political sources told Shafaq News.The sources, who requested anonymitydue to the sensitivity of the matter, said Qaani remained in Baghdad for only afew hours, indicating that the meetings focused primarily on the issue offactional weapons and how they are managed, amid efforts to contain potentialdisagreements among armed groups over the handling of this file.According to the sources, thediscussions aimed to prevent the weapons issue from turning into a source ofinternal tension or conflict among the factions. “Qaani stressed the importanceof maintaining a unified position and avoiding internal escalation, and urgedthat the matter be addressed through coordinated mechanisms that preservesecurity stability and avert broader political or security repercussions forIraq.”The debate over limiting weapons tostate authority has moved to the forefront of Iraq’s political and securitylandscape in recent months amid growing messages from Washington linkingstability and bilateral relations to ending the presence of arms outsideofficial institutions or integrating armed formations into formal statestructures under clear legal frameworks.Political sources also pointed tointernal confusion among armed factions themselves over how to approach theweapons file, including whether arms should be handed over to the state,restricted under specific arrangements, or retained for a later stage.Some factions, including KataibHezbollah and Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, have from the outset firmly rejectedany move to hand over or restrict their weapons. They argue that such stepsshould only be considered after what they describe as the end of “foreignoccupation” in Iraq, particularly the presence of US and Turkish forces.Other factions, such as Kataib ImamAli and Asaib Ahl al-Haq, have taken a more flexible stance, indicating thatthe issue remains under negotiation and should ultimately serve the interestsof the Iraqi state.Despite operating under a jointcoordination framework, a later statement issued by the Resistance CoordinationCommittee, which represents the armed factions, said there would be “norestriction of weapons” unless four specific conditions were met. These includethe passage of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Law and the removal of allforms of what it described as occupation and related threats.The statement itself, however,became a point of contention after Asaib Ahl al-Haq publicly distanced itselffrom it, saying the position did not represent the group.: Iraq’s armed factions and the disarmament debate: Why unity masks deep divisions