ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi submitted a six-point proposal to the Iran-backed armed factions that includes prolonging the initial deadline set for their disarmament on September 30 to mid-2027, a senior official within the ruling Shiite-led Coordination Framework told Rudaw on Tuesday, as Baghdad continues to grapple with the armed groups amid US pressure.
The proposal “serves as the foundation for an agreement,” Haidar al-Fawadi, head of the political bureau of the Reconstruction and Development Coalition - a constituent of the Coordination Framework - told Rudaw’s Hastyar Qadir.
Prime Minister Zaidi first pledged to reform Iraq’s security sector and consolidate arms under state control in his May inaugural speech and set the September 30 deadline shortly thereafter.
While initially coinciding with the departure of the US-led Coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS), the three Iran-aligned factions have not yet complied - drawing Iraqi officials into negotiations and talks with armed groups and a shift in rhetoric regarding a more loosely-defined disarmament deadline.
“The points of the agreement and the roadmap for the upcoming phase” will be announced shortly after the scheduled departure of the US-led Global Coalition against the Islamic State, the first point of the proposal reads, according to Fawadi.
A subsequent 90-day probationary period for de-escalation will be announced, the second point notes, “during which the groups must refrain from launching attacks and the US must cease strikes, in order to build trust and create suitable conditions for the next phase.”
“Following the conclusion of the 90-day period, the organized and phased handover of weapons will begin according to an agreed-upon mechanism,” the third point reads.
Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), which consists of Iraqi armed factions aligned to Iran, has launched hundreds of strikes against US assets inside and outside Iraq from the outbreak of the US-Israeli war against Iran in late February toward April. In response, Washington struck bases associated with the IRI and the state-funded Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) - whose factions see an overlap with the IRI - killing around 80 of their members in the same period, according to figures released by the PMF.
Zaidi said in a report by The New York Times on Monday that he plans to integrate members of the armed factions individually into the PMF. Of relevant note, Washington has not designated the PMF as a terror organization, despite dragging most of its factions in the list.
The integration is mentioned in the fourth point, with the Iraqi government aiming to end their “existence as independent armed entities.”
“The process of disarming and establishing state control will proceed according to a proposed schedule running through June 30, 2027,” Zaidi’s proposal continues, according to Fawadi, stressing in the last point that any group continuing to operate as an armed force outside the framework of the state and the law “will be deemed illegal” after that date.
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