Chairman of Iraq's Weapons Restriction Committee: PMF Will Take Measures Against Defiers..
Baghdad – News Agencies:
General Qais al-Mahmdawi, Chairman of the Permanent Committee for Restricting Weapons to the State in Iraq, launched a series of firm and unprecedented stances regarding the future of armed factions and their security structure in the country.
Al-Mahmdawi stressed that Iraq is living through a sensitive phase that requires building regular security and military forces without any political or religious affiliations or labels. He pointed out that the primary objective of the weapons restriction process is to establish forces linked exclusively to the state.
In the context of executive measures, Al-Mahmdawi revealed the thwarting of security operations and the arrest of groups connected to recent attacks targeting Iraq’s neighboring countries. He warned that any armed formation outside the official Iraqi forces will henceforth be considered "outlaws."
Regarding the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) umbrella, the committee chairman explained that the PMF will take strict decisions and rulings against anyone who refuses to hand over their weapons. He emphasized that all formations within the PMF will report exclusively to its command, and there will be no integration of factions from outside it, stressing that "the weapons restriction process at this stage includes factions within the PMF only."
Analytical Reading: Selective Discourse, Shadows of US Pressure, and the "Fortified Militias" Square
The terms of the disarmament plan announced by General Al-Mahmdawi—which came driven by intense US pressure following the recent escalation—show clear selectivity targeting specific parties. This is evident in several core areas:
Ignoring the Peshmerga and Other Kurdish Movements:
The decision completely overlooks the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, which constitute a massive regular army possessing a heavy, independent arsenal that is not subject to the authority of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
More importantly, the plan ignores other armed Kurdish movements and parties deployed in northern Iraq (such as the Kurdistan Workers' Party [PKK] and Iranian Kurdish opposition parties). These groups possess camps and full military forces outside Baghdad's control, yet the threat of their weaponry was not addressed.
The Sadrist Movement Contradiction and the Hidden "Promised Day" Weaponry:
A stark contradiction emerges here; while the Sadrist movement officially announced the readiness of "Saraya al-Salam" to hand over its weapons to the state in line with the political atmosphere, reality overlooks the movement's most dangerous force: the "Promised Day Brigade."
This brigade represents a secretive, ideological military elite founded by Muqtada al-Sadr in 2008. Despite its prior freeze announcement, it still retains its structure and hidden arsenal within neighborhoods (such as Sadr City) as a strategic reserve force untouched by restriction measures.
The "Tribal Mobilization" Dilemma:
The oversight extends to include the "Tribal Mobilization" (Hashd al-Asha'iri) factions in the western regions. Thousands of their fighters take orders primarily from their tribal chiefs and clans, and they possess weapons outside the effective oversight of the army, without being included in the threatening rhetoric.
Conclusion:
Restricting the scope of the campaign to "PMF factions only" proves that the goal is not a comprehensive national project to strip all parties and tribes of their military claws. Instead, it is a US-driven tool aimed exclusively at cornering the factions involved in striking US bases and interests in the region.
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