ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s Iran-aligned armed groups have demanded an end to the country’s financial dependence on the United States before agreeing to lay down their arms, a senior lawmaker close to the groups told Rudaw on Thursday, a day after US forces completed their withdrawal from Iraq.
The demand comes as the Iraqi government moves to bring all weapons under state control following the end of the US-led coalition’s military mission in the country.
Saud al-Saadi, head of the parliamentary faction of the Hoquq Movement - the political wing of Kata’ib Hezbollah - told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman that “the complete withdrawal of US and foreign forces, including Turkish troops; preventing foreign interference; and liberating Iraq’s financial decision-making, which has been used as leverage by the US Federal Reserve over Iraqi oil revenues,” are “among” the conditions set by the factions for laying down their weapons.
Kata’ib Hezbollah has previously demanded the withdrawal of US and Turkish troops, as well as the dissolution of the constitutionally sanctioned Peshmerga forces, as preconditions for disarming. However, the group has not previously publicly cited ending US oversight of Iraq’s oil revenues as a condition for laying down its arms.
Iraq’s oil revenues are deposited in an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, an arrangement rooted in mechanisms established after the 2003 US-led invasion. Baghdad periodically requests dollar shipments to meet domestic demand and finance government and foreign transactions. The system gives Washington significant oversight over Iraq’s access to dollar revenues.
Hours after Saadi’s remarks, Iraqi government spokesperson Haidar al-Aboudi was quoted by state media as announcing the arrival of “a new shipment of US dollar” as a “part of understanding” with the US to secure "foreign currency needs.”
Saadi stated that the weapons of the Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) are “an integral part of defending the state.”
“Once full sovereignty is realized and we control our own decisions, we naturally support collecting weapons under state control,” he said.
The US-designated Kata’ib Hezbollah is part of the IRI, an umbrella group of Iran-aligned armed factions whose disarmament has become one of the major goals of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s government program.
The IRI is part of the Iran-led regional “Axis of Resistance,” a network of Tehran-aligned armed groups across Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. It claimed more than 700 attacks on US assets during the nearly six-week US-Israeli war against Iran that began in February.
Zaidi had initially set September 30 - coinciding with the withdrawal of US-led coalition forces from Iraq - as a deadline for bringing weapons under state control, but recently extended the process until mid-2027.
The disarmament process “will follow a clear roadmap and agreed-upon timelines - concluding no later than June 30, 2027 - in accordance with the constitutional principle that entrusts decisions regarding war and peace solely to constitutional authorities and prohibits any military action contrary to this,” Zaidi said on Thursday.
In this respect, Saadi said “negotiations and efforts to reach an understanding have been ongoing for several weeks.”
He also said the parliamentary faction he leads has “emerged” from the state-sponsored Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and the IRI - a background he said they “are proud of.”
Earlier in September, the Coordination Framework announced the formation of a committee to support Zaidi through a “carefully studied plan” to “confining weapons under state control.” The Shiite-led political alliance includes 14 factions, six of which are on the US terror list.
The committee has been working on a timetable and program to bring weapons under state control through dialogue and within constitutional and legal frameworks.
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