Iraq’s long road to reclaiming the factions’ weapons
With clashes between the factions and Iraqi forces a real fear, observers are left asking the hard questions (Reuters)
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In an interview with Al-Arabiya, Lt. Gen. Qais Al-Muhammadawi, who heads Iraq’s Disengagement and Arms Control Committee, made clear that the current phase of bringing weapons under state authority reaches only the factions already folded into the Popular Mobilization Units — not groups outside it. He credited an initiative by Sadrist Movement leader Muqtada Al-Sadr involving the Saraya Al-Salam militia, also known as the Peace Brigades, with setting the project in motion and said its purpose was to “end the linkage of weapons to any political or religious banner.” Any handover, he added, would follow “an agreement between the army command and those who hold the weapons” — a process requiring “time” that “cannot be settled in a single day.”
