Baghdad-INA
Spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Sabah Al-Numan said on Thursday that an executive order has been issued forming a committee with sovereign responsibilities to establish binding military mechanisms and procedures to end armed manifestations and withdraw weapons, stressing that safeguarding national security requires decisively ending efforts to politicize the military institution.
Al-Numan told the Iraqi News Agency (INA): “In mandatory compliance with the government program approved by Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi, and in implementation of the national initiative, and with the blessing of the religious authority and political leaders, we announce the issuance of the executive order establishing a central high-level committee headed by the Deputy Commander of Joint Operations, and with the membership of the personal secretary of the Commander-in-Chief, the assistant to the senior undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior, and representatives of the Army General Staff, the Popular Mobilization Forces, administrative bodies, and the legal departments of the Ministries of Defense and Interior.”
He explained that “the committee has begun its sovereign duties by setting binding military mechanisms and procedures to end armed manifestations and withdraw weapons, and to immediately start dismantling any political affiliation and move toward integration and full compliance under the state’s umbrella.”
He confirmed that “the restructuring process has effectively started with the reorganization of the ‘heroic brigades’ from supporting forces, with high praise for their historical sacrifices in safeguarding the land and protecting the holy city of Samarra and its sacred shrine, in parallel with the issuance of two additional executive orders (the second and third) to apply the same strict standards and timelines to other specialized formations that voluntarily moved to join under the authority of the law.”
The spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief added that “safeguarding Iraq’s national security, and reading the coordinates of the phase domestically, regionally, and internationally, requires decisively ending efforts to politicize the military institution.”
He stressed that “our heroic fighters in all these titles represent a strategic asset for the state, and their salaries and administrative and financial rights will be constitutionally preserved through the Popular Mobilization Forces, while their operational subordination, field movements, and weapons systems will be exclusively and unconditionally transferred to the authority of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces through the official channels represented by (Defense, Interior, Popular Mobilization, and other official armed formations).”
Al-Numan confirmed that “coordination and joint work with the Peshmerga forces is going through its most advanced institutional phase, through their permanent representation in the National Security Council, high committees, and joint operations, complemented by the deployment of two joint brigades to clear areas of security interest from the remnants of ISIS terrorist gangs.”
He noted that “the positioning, disengagement, and redeployment of forces across all sectors — including the Samarra sector — is subject exclusively to tactical assessments and military requirements as deemed appropriate by the Commander-in-Chief.”
