Kataib Hezbollah rejects disarmament as Iraq advances weapons control plan

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Kataib Hezbollah armed group said on Thursday that Iraq's main armed resistance factions do not intend to surrender their weapons, despite growing political momentum behind a government-backed effort to bring all arms under state control.

In a statement marking Eid al-Ghadir, the group's security official, Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, noted the five main Iran-aligned "Islamic Resistance" factions, along with Kataib Karbala, would retain their weapons as long as issues related to foreign military presence and violations of Iraqi sovereignty remained unresolved.

"The organization of weapons will come after our objectives are achieved," al-Assaf said, adding that the factions have no plans to hand over their arms at the present time.

He also argued that groups which have recently begun transferring weapons or facilities to state authorities had not been actively involved in resistance activities in recent years, distancing those moves from the factions he represents.

Read more: Iraq to place armed factions' weapons under state control: What we know so far

Earlier today, Iraqi security officials announced the first practical steps toward integrating armed factions into the state's security framework, beginning with the transfer of facilities and weapons belonging to Saraya al-Salam, the armed wing of Muqtada al-Sadr's Patriotic Shiite Movement, in Samarra.

The effort forms part of a broader government drive to consolidate weapons under state authority, backed by the ruling Shiite Coordination Framework, which recently endorsed Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's plans to restructure relations between armed groups and the state.

Momentum behind the initiative has grown in recent days. Saraya al-Salam has begun transferring units to state control, while both Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kataib Imam Ali have announced measures aimed at reorganizing their forces and aligning them with the government's weapons-control initiative.