2026-06-02T20:36:44+00:00

font

Enable Reading Mode

A-
A
A+

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has proposed a plan to the
United States that would link the expansion of US-led service and investment
projects in Iraq to efforts to restrict weapons to state control and facilitate
the disarmament of armed factions, a political source told Shafaq News on
Tuesday.

The proposal aims to shift the weapons issue from a direct
security challenge into a broader political and economic settlement by
providing practical alternatives for faction members, particularly through
employment opportunities and productive development projects.

“Al-Zaidi believes that the involvement of
American companies in service and investment sectors could provide the
government with economic and political support for implementing a gradual
disarmament plan,” the source said, adding that It would also seek to create jobs for young Iraqis, integrate some faction members into the labor market, and reduce their reliance
on armed formations operating outside state institutions.

Earlier in the day, Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), one of Iraq’s
most powerful Iran-aligned armed factions, announced the formation of an
internal central committee tasked with implementing the group’s disengagement
from Popular Mobilization Forces structures and transferring its weapons,
personnel, and equipment to state authority.

Ashab al-Kahf, also one of Iraq’s prominent clandestine
armed groups, rejected outright any political calls for factions to surrender their
weapons, dismissing arguments invoking the supreme Shia religious authority in
support of disarmament as false. Kataib Hezbollah welcomed efforts to centralize arms
under government oversight while signaling it would not disarm.

Al-Zaidi has made weapons restriction a central plank of his
government program, welcoming al-Sadr’s earlier disarmament initiative as a
step that would strengthen Iraq’s security institutions in performing their
constitutional duties, and calling on other armed factions to follow through
official state channels, on the principle that “the authority to bear arms and
enforce the law belongs exclusively to the state.” 

Read more: Iraq’s armed factions and the disarmament debate: Why unity masks deep divisions