Iraq presses ahead with plan to collect 6 million weapons despite militia pushback

Iraq says it will continue a nationwide effort to collect an estimated 6 million weapons held outside official institutions, even as it softens a key deadline and faces resistance from armed factions. The Interior Ministry said the campaign is moving ahead through negotiation rather than force. Officials say the aim is to bring weapons under state control and reduce the influence of groups operating outside the formal security system.

Sponsored

Deputy Interior Minister Hussein al-Awadi said the September 30 deadline, which had been linked to the final withdrawal of US-led coalition forces, is now being treated as the start of a regulatory process rather than a fixed end point. He said a four-member committee, including Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and former premier Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, is working on a revised mechanism. Al-Awadi made the remarks during a visit to Salah al-Din province, where he said security files would be handed to provinces one by one in the coming months.

The government says it has made measurable progress in about 100 days since al-Zaidi took office. Al-Zaidi said in August that his government had no intention of using military means against the factions, and that some groups had already handed over weapons while talks continued with others. He has also said the withdrawal of US troops would leave no justification for resistance in Iraq and that he would not accept a state within a state.

The approach suggests Baghdad is trying to avoid a direct confrontation with powerful armed groups while still pressing for tighter state control. The issue matters because the factions involved are mostly Shia militias formed under Iranian guidance and backed by Tehran. Many are loosely grouped under the Popular Mobilisation Forces, an umbrella organisation created in 2014 after Iraq's top Shia cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called on volunteers to fight the Islamic State group.

Sponsored

Some PMF factions have been incorporated into Iraq's state security structure, while others have kept separate command chains and continued to receive weapons, funding and direction from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. That split has long complicated efforts to build a unified security system. The disarmament drive is also taking place under US pressure.

Washington asked Baghdad in June for a clear timetable to bring weapons under state control, and the Trump administration has linked compliance to Iraq's access to dollar flows that are important to the economy. That gives the campaign a financial as well as security dimension. It also raises the stakes for the government as it tries to balance relations with the United States, Iran-aligned factions and domestic political actors.

What remains unclear is how quickly the revised mechanism can be implemented and how much of the estimated arsenal can realistically be brought under state control. It is also not clear which factions will comply fully and which will continue to resist through negotiation or delay. The next stage will be whether the government can turn the regulatory process into concrete collections without triggering a wider political or security backlash.

#Iraq #weaponscollection #InteriorMinistry #PopularMobilisationForces #militiapushback

Sponsored