Shafaq News- Baghdad
Disputes have intensifiedwithin Iraq’s Shiite Coordination Framework (CF), parliament’s largest bloc,over a reported US proposal calling for the disarmament of armed factions andthe dissolution or restructuring of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), aninformed source told Shafaq News on Monday.
Several political groupsaligned with the factions warned they would withdraw from the coalition andboycott the political process if the alliance backs measures targeting the PMF,while other parties expressed readiness to abandon armed activity in exchangefor senior positions within the state, according to the source, who spoke oncondition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.
The CF, the source added, isexpected to hold a meeting in the coming days to discuss the US proposal andits political and security implications.
MP Miqdad Al-Khafaji of theHoqooq bloc, Kataib Hezbollah’s political wing within the CF, had earlier accusedWashington and multiple Iraqi political groups of seeking to end the PMF’s roleby distributing its fighters across ministries and security institutions. Speakingto our agency, he argued that the issue is being used as leverage againstfactions affiliated with the “resistance” and their parliamentary allies toshape future political decisions and projects.
A government source previouslytold our agency that Iraqi factions and armed groups had shown “flexibility”toward handing over their weapons to the state after initially rejecting theproposal, with a phased process expected to begin after Eid Al-Adha on May 27.
Officials are also discussingmechanisms for implementing the process under the supervision of Prime MinisterAli Al-Zaidi once cabinet formation is completed. Under the proposed framework,some factions could transition into political organizations, while others maybe absorbed into the PMF, a coalition of mostly Shiite factions formallyincorporated into Iraq’s security apparatus under Law No. 40 of 2016.
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