Asaib Ahl Al-Haq backs limiting weapons to Iraqi state after Al-Sadr move

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Asaib Ahl al-Haq, an Iran-backed Iraqi armed faction, on Wednesday voiced support for restricting weapons to state control following a decision by Muqtada Al-Sadr, leader of the Patriotic Shiite Movement (PSM), to place Saraya Al-Salam, the armed wing of his movement, under state authority.

Speaking with Shafaq News, Khaled Al-Saadi, a political bureau member of the Sadiqoon parliamentary bloc, the political wing of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, said “there should be no uncontrolled weapons outside state institutions,” while describing earlier calls by the faction’s leader Qais Al-Khazali to limit weapons to the state as a “national call” aimed at denying foreign powers, including the United States, any justification to target Iraq over the issue of arms outside official institutions.

“Our support for restricting weapons to the state remains tied to the government’s ability to protect Iraq by land, air, and sea,” Al-Saadi noted.

Earlier today, Al-Khazali argued that “resistance” is no longer limited to military action but also includes building “a strong state with sovereignty, institutions, and independent decision-making,” warning that movements lacking a broader state-building project could eventually become “a burden on society.” However, Kazem Al-Fartousi, spokesperson for Kataib Sayyed al-Shuhadaa, described his group’s position on handing over weapons to the Iraqi government as “firm and unchanged,” saying the factions’ arms would remain as long as the reasons for their existence continued.

The comments came hours after Al-Sadr announced the formal separation of Saraya Al-Salam from his movement, stating that its members would integrate into state institutions “in the national interest” and in response to risks facing the country. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi welcomed the move and urged other armed factions to follow the same path through official institutions, stressing that “the state alone should hold the authority to monopolize arms and enforce the law,” a principle that forms one of the central pledges in his government program.

These remarks were widely interpreted as directed at Iran-backed factions operating under the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” umbrella, including Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kataib Sayyed al-Shuhadaa, and Harakat al-Nujaba. Many of those groups are formally part of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a predominantly Shiite umbrella force incorporated into the Iraqi state in 2016, but they continue to maintain separate command structures and weapons networks outside direct government control.

Read more: Iraq’s armed factions and disarmament debate: Unity masks divisions