Iraq’s paramilitary groups say they will disarm. Will that ever happen?
Powerful Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr among those who say their groups will integrate into the state, but there is still no timeline for implementation. It
Powerful Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr among those who say their groups will integrate into the state, but there is still no timeline for implementation. It was his first speech in front of parliament as Iraq’s prime minister, and Ali al-Zaidi was quick to set out his stall. “[I am committing to] reforming the security apparatus by restricting weapons to state control and strengthening the capabilities of the security forces,” al-Zaidi pledged in mid-May. Al-Zaidi is not the first Iraqi prime minister to promise that the state will have a monopoly on arms in a country where paramilitary groups – including many backed by neighbouring Iran – have been powerful since the 2003 United States-led war on Iraq. But with pressure from Washington to disarm the groups amid the US-Israel war on Iran, and the economic challenges brought on by that war, al-Zaidi knows that he needs to clamp down on the power of Iraq’s paramilitary groups to attract outside investment, and not attract the ire of the US. A number of the groups have played a role during the regional conflict, launching missiles and drones at US facilities in Iraq and the Gulf. Iraqi oil revenue has sharply declined since the beginning of the war in the region in late February and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s main conduits for oil. Iraq had exported about 3.3 million barrels per day (bpd) before the war, roughly 90 percent of it through the Strait of Hormuz.
Figures for March show oil exports dropping to about 600,000bpd. Oil revenue represents more than 90 percent of Iraq’s state budget. “Neither the economy not stability can flourish while arms remain out of the state’s control,” political analyst Mujashaa Altimimi told Al Jazeera. “Addressing this issue has become more of an economic necessity than it is a security one for the prime minister.” Al-Sadr leads the way One of the most powerful Iraqi Shia leaders, Muqtada al-Sadr, was quick to back al-Zaidi when he announced on May 27 that the Saraya al-Salam group would separate from the political movement under al-Sadr’s control and integrate its members into the state’s armed forces. “Complying with the national interest of the state and to avoid the dangers threatening our homeland, it is our obligation to announce the complete dissociation of Saraya al-Salam from the Shia Movement in order to fully integrate them into the state under the military general commander,” al-Sadr said in a statement welcomed by al-Zaidi. Al-Sadr also called on other paramilitary groups – in particular, those affiliated with the Iran-backed and largely Shia Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) – to follow his lead and dissolve themselves. Some have promised to do so, including Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Faleh al-Fayyad, the head of the PMF, also said there would be a “complete disengagement” between the PMF and any political groups, adding that the goal was to make the PMF “an institution subject to a unified system and linked to the commander-in-chief of the armed forces [the Iraqi prime minister]”.
The BriefWire