No deadline for disarming militias this year, says Iraqi Prime Minister's aide

Résumé détaillé

The Iraqi government will not reach an agreement to disarm the Iran-backed militias this year, an adviser to Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi said on Wednesday.Although the government…

The Iraqi government will not reach an agreement to disarm the Iran-backed militias this year, an adviser to Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi said on Wednesday.

Although the government is “serious” about disarmament, it needs to be “flexible”, said Yousif Al Dunainawi on Wednesday. Mr Al Zaidi set a new deadline of June 2027 to bring weapons held by armed groups under state control as US troops withdrew from Iraq in September.

Mr Al Dunainawi cited “external and internal factors” in play and emphasised the need to protect the country's security.

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“So if you are looking at the deadline, all political forces for the Co-Ordination Framework and others … are serious about the state. But we are flexible to see what is in the Iraqi interest because we need to keep Iraq safe,” he said, at the Iraq Initiative conference at the foreign affairs think tank Chatham House in London.

Iran-backed paramilitaries in Iraq have attacked Gulf energy facilities and US bases in response to American air strikes in Iran, and have been accused of a violent clampdown on Iraqi protesters who rose up against the government in 2020.

National Security Adviser Qasim Al Aboudi said Mr Al Zaidi was in dialogue with the armed factions, and the disarmament plan would be implemented “in an incremental way”. Two groups had resisted efforts to negotiate disarmament, while one was “flexible”, Mr Aboudi said.

“There is a continuing conversation between the Prime Minister and the factions. Finally these factions signed an undertaking, there was a conclusion that they had to lay down their arms, he said.

“Two of them are still a bit rigid. One of them showed more flexibility that’s why I’m optimistic that the plan will be completed by June,” he said.

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