Iraq’s Amiri urges peaceful path to state control of weapons
BAGHDAD – Badr Organisation leader Hadi al-Amiri said on Sunday that bringing weapons under state control was an Iraqi national decision and ruled out any confrontation between the government and armed groups, as Baghdad seeks to resolve one of the most sensitive issues facing the country’s political establishment.
“I assure everyone there will absolutely be no confrontation between the state and the resistance,” Amiri said at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the killing of Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the former head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, from which the Badr Organisation emerged.
“Regulating weapons is a legitimate national and constitutional objective and a foundation for building a strong state capable of protecting Iraq and preserving its security, sovereignty and dignity,” he said. “It is not an external decision, but an entirely Iraqi one.”
Amiri also urged all sides to exercise restraint and avoid inflammatory positions, warning against giving foreign powers opportunities to expand their influence over Iraq’s security, political and economic decision-making.
His comments come as Baghdad approaches a Sept. 30 deadline set for advancing efforts to bring weapons under state authority, with negotiations under way over how the policy should be implemented and what arrangements should govern armed groups.
The debate has increasingly shifted in recent weeks from the language of “disarmament” to “regulation of weapons,” reflecting an attempt to find common ground between the government’s demand for a state monopoly over military decision-making and armed factions’ insistence that their weapons remain part of Iraq’s security equation.
For the government, the central objective is to ensure that decisions on the use of force rest with state institutions. For some armed factions, however, surrendering weapons outright remains unacceptable, particularly before they receive guarantees on Iraq’s security environment and the presence of foreign forces.
Amiri’s intervention is significant because he is one of the most senior figures in the Shiite political establishment and a prominent figure within the Coordination Framework, the main political bloc underpinning the government in Baghdad. He also has longstanding links to armed factions, giving him influence across both the political and military sides of the debate.
His message therefore appears aimed at preserving agreement on the principle of state control of weapons while making clear that the process should be political, consensual and peaceful rather than enforced through a confrontation between the government and armed groups.
The Badr Organisation has itself moved towards accepting the principle of placing its weapons under state control, while several Iran-aligned factions have taken a harder line and set conditions for participating in any process to reorganise weapons and armed formations.
The issue has exposed differences within the broader Shiite political camp over how far and how quickly the government should go. Some factions have argued that weapons cannot be addressed separately from the presence of foreign troops, regional security threats and the status of other armed formations operating in Iraq.
Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has ruled out military action to enforce the policy, saying the government is seeking political understandings. Security officials have likewise described Sept. 30 as a key point in the process rather than an automatic date for the physical surrender of weapons.
The government has also sought to distinguish between the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which are formally part of Iraq’s security apparatus, and weapons held by groups operating outside state authority.
The PMF was established in 2014 after a religious edict by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani calling for mobilisation against Islamic State. It was formally incorporated into Iraq’s armed forces in 2016, although a number of factions within or associated with the umbrella organisation retain powerful political and military structures.
That dual role has made the weapons issue particularly difficult for Baghdad. Many of the armed groups are linked to political parties that are themselves part of the governing coalition, meaning that an attempt to enforce disarmament by force could quickly become a political crisis inside the ruling camp.
Several factions have also demanded guarantees and broader changes before accepting the government’s approach. Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, for example, has called for conditions including the withdrawal of US and Turkish forces and changes to arrangements involving other armed groups operating on Iraqi territory.
Kataib Hezbollah has similarly set conditions for engaging with the process, including demands concerning the status of the Kurdistan Region’s security forces.
The government’s position has been that the objective is not to dismantle the PMF as an institution but to ensure that all weapons and military decisions ultimately fall under state authority.
Amiri’s remarks reinforce that distinction while seeking to prevent the issue from becoming a direct confrontation between the state and the factions.
He also said the Coordination Framework had agreed on combating corruption and voiced support for the prime minister in that campaign.