Shafaq News- Baghdad

Several Iraqi political factions and armed groups have shown “flexibility” toward handing over their weapons to the state after previously rejecting the idea, with a phased disarmament process expected to begin after the Islamic holiday Eid Al-Adha on May 27, a government source told Shafaq News on Sunday.

Discussions are underway to establish a mechanism for transferring weapons to the government under the supervision of Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi following the completion of the cabinet formation process. Under the proposed arrangements, faction structures could be transformed into political entities or integrated within a defined timeline into the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a coalition of mostly Shiite armed groups formally integrated into Iraq's state security apparatus.

The discussions also included government guarantees that faction members would not face prosecution, foreign asset freezes, or financial targeting, while their weapons would be officially registered under state supervision and stored according to mechanisms determined by the government. Most faction leaders, the source said, responded positively during direct meetings after being informed of the government guarantees.

Iraq’s parliament passed Law No. 40 in 2016 formally incorporating the PMF into the country’s armed forces under the authority of the commander-in-chief. Some factions that previously refused to disarm or integrate into state institutions softened their positions after messages delivered by Iranian Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani during his recent visit to Baghdad, which stressed the need to regulate the weapons of Iran-aligned factions and integrate their members into official institutions because there was “no longer a need” for independent armed formations.

Iran also sought to prevent a wider regional conflict and believed it was capable of defending itself without “expanding the confrontation” across the Middle East, the source added.

Earlier this month, a source told Shafaq News that the Shiite Coordination Framework –parliament’s largest bloc– and Al-Zaidi agreed to form a committee overseeing the disarmament process. However, Nadhim Al-Saedi, head of the executive council of Al-Nujaba, told our agency on May 15 that the government’s pledge to restrict weapons to state control did not apply to what he described as “resistance weapons,” but rather to arms used outside the law and causing instability.

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