Shafaq News- Baghdad

Muqtada Al-Sadr's decision to dissolve ties with Saraya Al-Salam, the armed wing of his Patriotic Shiite Movement (PSM), was conveyed to Washington, political analyst Rafid Al-Atwani told Shafaq News on Sunday, describing the move as an effort by Al-Sadr to ease pressure on the Iraqi government amid mounting international scrutiny of armed groups.

Al-Atwani, who is close to the PSM, argued that armed groups such as the Mahdi Army, founded by al-Sadr in 2003, emerged during the years of the US military presence in Iraq, while the current government has adopted a policy of restricting weapons to state institutions.

Al-Sadr, according to Al-Atwani, had previously sought to integrate Saraya Al-Salam members into Iraq's security institutions, but successive governments rejected the proposal and maintained the presence of armed factions outside official structures.

Saraya Al-Salam currently operates through three brigades within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a predominantly Shiite umbrella force incorporated into the Iraqi state in 2016. However, he suggested that the group's members could eventually be withdrawn from the PMF and integrated into another security institution, possibly the Federal Police, citing Al-Sadr's longstanding reservations about the PMF's leadership and some of its factions.

He noted that around 400 Saraya Al-Salam members remain outside the PMF structure and would require separate legal and financial arrangements, while some personnel could eventually be transferred to Al-Bunyan Al-Marsous, a civil organization affiliated with Al-Sadr.

The Shiite cleric's latest move, the analyst added, differs from previous suspensions or dissolutions of armed groups linked to the movement, noting that Al-Sadr took the decision to “keep the country away from the threat of military strikes or sanctions.”

Asked whether a new armed formation linked to the movement could emerge in the future, Al-Atwani said it was too early to tell. "Any new formation will depend on the circumstances Iraq faces in the future," he remarked.

On May 27, Al-Sadr announced the formal separation of Saraya Al-Salam from the PSM, stating that its members would join state institutions "in the national interest." Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi, who has made state control over weapons a central pledge of his government program, and representatives of Al-Sadr had agreed on a mechanism to integrate the group into Iraq's security forces and transfer its weapons to the state, forming a committee to oversee the implementation process.

Read more: Ali Al-Zaidi's incomplete cabinet faces Iraqi armed factions test

The broader government plan is widely viewed as extending beyond Saraya Al-Salam to factions operating under the "Islamic Resistance in Iraq" umbrella, including Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kataib Sayyed al-Shuhadaa, and Harakat al-Nujaba. Although many of these groups are formally part of the PMF, they continue to maintain separate command structures and weapons networks outside direct government control. Washington has increased pressure on Baghdad, linking support for the Iraqi government to limiting the role of armed factions within state institutions and their disarmament.

A source previously told Shafaq News that Iraq's Shiite Coordination Framework (CF), the country's main ruling coalition that includes parties linked to armed factions, is expected to discuss Al-Sadr's decision, the future of the PMF, and broader efforts to place weapons under state control during a meeting with Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi in the coming days.