Shafaq News- Baghdad

Talks between Iraq’s ruling Shiite Coordination Framework and armed factions are making progress toward bringing weapons under state control ahead of the Sept. 30 end of the US-led Coalition’s military mission, a political official told Shafaq News on Thursday.

Khalid Walid, a member of the political bureau of the Reconstruction and Development Coalition led by former PM Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said a three-member committee comprising al-Sudani, former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, and Badr Organization leader Hadi al-Amiri had held a series of meetings with factions in recent days.

He said the committee supports Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s efforts to bring weapons under state authority and is working under a mandate from the Coordination Framework and the State Administration Coalition, an alliance of political forces representing Iraq’s main communities.

Walid described the talks as positive and said Sept. 30 would mark an important stage in regulating weapons outside state institutions. After that date, he said, state institutions would move ahead with measures aimed at safeguarding Iraqi sovereignty, preventing attacks on neighboring countries from Iraqi territory and ensuring that decisions of war and peace remain under state authority.

Read more: Tension meets dialogue as Iraq approaches September 30

The committee believed dialogue could prevent escalation and ultimately resolve the issue without destabilizing Iraq, according to Walid. Al-Maliki and al-Amiri have favored describing the process as “regulating” or “containing” weapons rather than outright “disarmament,” terminology intended to ease resistance from armed factions. Shafaq News previously reported that Shiite leaders had proposed a “weapons management” formula under which the use of factional arms would fall under the authority of the commander-in-chief.

Several Iran-aligned groups, including Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat al-Nujaba and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, have resisted surrendering their weapons and linked any such move to the withdrawal of foreign troops and security guarantees against external attacks.

Read more: Iraq's disarmament deadline pits Baghdad against Iran-aligned factions

The State Administration Coalition has said armed activity outside official institutions after Sept. 30 could face action under Iraq’s Anti-Terrorism Law. However, National Security Adviser Qasim al-Araji later clarified that Sept. 30 marks the end of the Coalition mission and that efforts to bring weapons under state control would continue gradually afterward.