Iraqi state needs ‘monopoly’ on use of force: UN chief

UNITED NATIONS, New York – United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that the large number of armed groups in Iraq operating outside the formal command structure is preventing the country from functioning as a normal state. 

Responding to a question from Rudaw’s Majeed Gly at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday, UN chief Guterres said it is important to preserve the country’s unity and independence “to allow for Iraq to establish the normal functioning of a state”.

“One of the conditions of a normal functioning state is the monopoly of use of force by the state – by the army and the police that belong to the state,” Guterres told a press briefing. 

“What we have now in Iraq is unfortunately a number of militias that sometimes are worse perpetrators of the violations of human rights as we hear, and we have witnessed many of the attacks on peaceful demonstrators in Iraq exactly by militias,” he said. 

When the Islamic State group (ISIS) emerged in 2014, Iraq’s top Shiite religious authority Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling on Shiites to take up arms to protect Baghdad and Iraq’s Shiite holy sites. 

The militias his decree created became the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMFs), also known as Hashd al-Shaabi. However, many of them were composed of existing militias backed by Iran, which has used these proxies to further its influence over Iraqi affairs. 

Since the territorial defeat of ISIS in December 2017, these Iran-backed militias have become a headache for the federal government and its US allies. 

Guterres said it is essential to “avoid the external interference that make it even more difficult for Iraqis to come together knowing, as we know, that the divisions are deep and that risks of the country imploding are high and absolutely essential to avoid, because Iraq is in a geographical location and as a nature that makes it a very sensitive country.”

“To preserve the stability of Iraq is crucial for the region and the implosion in Iraq will have devastating consequences for the region. So Iraq remains for us a very important priority in our advocacy, diplomacy, and support to the country,” he added. 

Observers fear that ongoing tensions between Washington and Tehran could spill over into a proxy war on Iraqi soil, where armed groups have already fired rockets at the US embassy compound in Baghdad and at US personnel stationed on Iraqi military bases.

With additional reporting by Karwan Faidhi Dri and Robert Edwards