Shafaq News- Baghdad
Calls for a “monopoly of arms by the state” are pressure onresistance groups and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), Harakat al-Nujaba,an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed faction, said on Friday, reiterating its rejectionof such proposals.
During a ceremony in Najaf, Sheikh Nazem al-Saadi noted that anydiscussion on regulating weapons in Iraq should apply a single standard acrossall actors without exception, stressing that selective enforcement would deepenexisting tensions.
Warning that pressure to limit arms could extend beyond non-state groupsand eventually reach Iraq’s official security institutions, he raised concernsover the political role of the PMF, underlining that the core issue is not in itsexistence or weaponry, but the prospect of integration intopolitical quota systems in a way that could reshape its institutional role.
The statement comes two days after Akram al-Kaabi, the faction’sSecretary-General, dismissed the disarmament process, distancing the group froma broader initiative under which several armed factions have begun steps towardtransferring weapons and integrating members into state institutions.
Earlier this week, Iraqi security officials outlined the first practicalsteps toward integrating armed factions into the state's security framework,beginning with the transfer of facilities and weapons belonging to Sarayaal-Salam of Iraq’s Patriotic Shiite Movement (PSM).
The move is part of a broader government drive to consolidate weaponsunder state authority, backed by the ruling Shiite Coordination Framework (CF),which recently endorsed Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's plans to restructurerelations between armed groups and the state.
Both Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kataib Imam Ali have previously introducedmeasures aimed at reorganizing their forces and aligning them with thegovernment's weapons-control initiative. Kataib Hezbollah and Ashab al-Kahf,however, have rejected any calls for disengagement.
: How the US pushed Iraq's armed factions toward disarmament, and who is still pushing back
