As the deadline set by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s government to bring all weapons under state control approaches, tensions have risen in Iraq. With some factions doubling down on their refusal to surrender their arms, others have begun to back away from their earlier support for the government’s disarmament initiative. A third camp is seeking to lower the temperature and is urging the authorities not to insist on the end-of-September deadline.
Al-Zaidi, however, appears determined to stick to it, even at the cost of his life. A dramatic advertisement broadcast by Al Iraqiya, the official state television channel, called for weapons to be surrendered and emphasised the strength of the state’s own arms. This created a firestorm of escalatory statements from opponents and supporters of the initiative. Within days came reports of a plot to assassinate Faiq Zidan, president of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, followed by reports that Abbas al-Yaqoubi, the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) intelligence official responsible for the Baghdad belt, had been arrested.
So far, events have hardly favoured al-Zaidi. The Coordination Framework, the political coalition underpinning his government, includes factions with sharply divergent views on efforts to bring all weapons under state control. Some have declared their readiness to relinquish their arms in exchange for preserving their political gains, hoping to trade their weapons for ministerial representation in the government.
