Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraqi armed faction Harakat Hezbollah Al-Nujaba on Friday said the pledge by Iraq’s new government to restrict weapons to state control does not apply to “resistance weapons.”

During a speech in Babil province, the faction’s Executive Council head Nazem Al-Saadi said the term “uncontrolled weapons” referred only to illegal arms causing “chaos,” stressing that it did not include weapons held by fighters who “defended Iraq, its holy sites, and its people during the most difficult circumstances.”

A day earlier, parliament approved Al-Zaidi’s cabinet and ministerial program, whose first pillar, titled “Strengthening State Sovereignty and National Security,” pledged to restrict weapons to state institutions, unify security decision-making, and place all military capabilities under official state authority. The program also emphasized developing the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and defining their responsibilities within Iraq’s legal military and security structure.

Read more: Ali Al-Zaidi sworn in as Iraq's prime minister with a program already failed

Founded in 2013 by Akram Al-Kaabi after splitting from Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, Al-Nujaba operates under the PMF umbrella and was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019. Unlike several Iran-aligned factions affiliated with the Shiite Coordination Framework (CF), Al-Nujaba does not hold parliamentary seats and is not formally part of the alliance, which controls around 180 seats in Iraq's 329-member parliament.

Al-Nujaba had chosen since its establishment not to participate in political or parliamentary life, instead monitoring the political process “to ensure service to the Iraqi people,” Al-Saadi said.

Read more: Iraq’s Resistance after Ali Khamenei: The test of Mojtaba’s leadership