Iraq’s new prime minister Ali al-Zaidi was supposed to rein in the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.
For years, the militias have carried out hundreds of attacks on US forces, kidnapped journalists and researchers, assassinated Iraqis, and attacked the Kurdistan Region, as well as attacked embassies and consulates.
The militias killed Americans in Jordan and targeted Israel.
Most of the powerful Iranian-backed militias in Iraq are sanctioned by the US as terrorist groups.
Now Iraq appears to be backtracking on the deadline for placing militia weapons under state control.
Iraq had initially indicated it would rein in the militias by September 30, when US troops sent to Iraq to back Baghdad against ISIS are supposed to leave. There are not very many of them in Iraq these days.
Most are in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq.
Now Iraq is indicating that it actually wants to wait until the Americans leave to disarm the militias. This bait-and-switch on timing indicates how Iraq will slow-play its obligations.
Rudaw Media Network reported on Sunday that “Iraq will begin gradually consolidating weapons held by armed factions under state control after the international coalition’s scheduled departure on September 30,” according to “Iraq’s national security advisor, calling the move a ‘strategic Iraqi decision’ and stressing that the process will be carried out through dialogue as opposed to armed confrontation.”
Sep. 30 set as deadline to consolidate arms
Both Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force head Esmail Qaani and Speaker of Parliament of Iran Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf were recently in Iraq to showcase Iran’s power in Baghdad.
Like the mafia collecting protection money, they were making Baghdad an offer it couldn’t refuse.
National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji, speaking to the state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA), said, “After September 30, the process of restricting weapons to the state will begin gradually.”
Rudaw added, “Araji said the government was serious about ‘severing’ ties between political parties and Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) brigades, adding that ongoing dialogues to complete the disengagement process were producing positive results as Baghdad seeks to ‘strengthen trust.’”
The news site noted that “the Iraqi government had previously set September 30 as the deadline for armed factions to hand over their weapons to the state.”
Now, though, “Araji said all political forces agree that weapons should be controlled exclusively by the state and ‘the decision of war and peace is exclusively in the hands of the Iraqi state.’”
“The weapons of the factions will become a force for the state and will not be handed over to any external party,” Araji claimed.
It’s clear Baghdad is moving toward a kind of bait and switch. It may pretend that the militias already have weapons under state control because most of the militias are technically part of the state-backed PMF paramilitary organization.
“Baghdad has faced resistance from some Iran-aligned factions, which have linked disarmament to the departure of US and other foreign forces from Iraq, with Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) in a statement on Tuesday going as far as to demand the departure of Turkish troops from northern Iraq and the dissolution of the Peshmerga forces as preconditions to complying with the government’s disarmament mandate,” Rudaw reported.
Iraq’s latest move is meant to focus on the US leaving and kick the can down the road in terms of actually confronting the militias.
Meanwhile, the prime minister is hinting he will only serve one term. It’s unclear whether the militias believe that they can simply wait out the prime minister.
What comes next is also uncertain.
The United States is focused on the Iran conflict and many other issues. Will the White House have the time and regional political capital to get Baghdad to disarm the militias now?
The US envoy to Iraq and Syria, Ambassador Tom Barrack, could play a helpful role. He is now focused on Syria in the wake of Israeli airstrikes there.
Baghdad may hope it can quietly push the date past September 30 and hope no one notices.
Many PMF militias have US sanctions due to attacks on US interests
The Iran-backed militias are among the most powerful armed terrorist threats in Iraq. Some have their origins in the 1980s when Iraqi Shi’ite groups backed by the IRGC fought Saddam Hussein’s regime.
After 2003, these groups expanded rapidly, and many later became part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) during the war against ISIS.
Several of the most prominent militias have been designated by the US as terrorist organizations. These include KH, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), Harakat al-Nujaba (HAN), Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS), Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya (HAAA), and Kata’ib Imam Ali (KIA).
Most are designated as both Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) because of attacks on the US and its coalition forces.
The US killed the leader of KH, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in a drone strike in January 2020. He was riding with IRGC Quds Force head Qasem Soleimani. Soleimani, the target of the drone strike, was also killed. This illustrates how the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq are Iranian proxies.
Disarming them will be difficult, as in the cases of Hamas and Hezbollah. However, doing so is essential for peace and stability in the region.
The militias recently attacked Saudi Arabia, for instance, prompting joint US-Saudi retaliatory airstrikes in Iraq.