Iraq’s ruling Shiite coalition is discussing transferring powerful armed factions’ weapons to Iran for storage, informed sources said, omitting the politically sensitive disarmament issue from a statement after its weekly meeting on Monday. A statement after the meeting, which was attended by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, said participants had discussed the Popular Mobilization Forces law and “the importance of completing its enactment in a manner that regulates its work and strengthens its role within state institutions.” They also discussed several key pieces of legislation, foremost among them the oil and gas law. On government formation, the Coordination Framework reviewed the ongoing talks and stressed the need to resolve the issue of vacant portfolios. It decided to proceed with naming the remaining ministers “to complete the formation of the government and enable it to carry out its duties.” Meanwhile, political sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the omission of the weapons issue from the statement was “linked to the three committees formed by the Coordination Framework to resolve the issue of bringing all weapons under state control.” The committees prefer to work away from public statements and media attention, the sources said, adding that most political party leaders, both within and outside the Coordination Framework, agree that weapons should be placed exclusively under state control. The sources attributed the repeated refusal by the three main factions — Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat al-Nujaba and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada — to disarm to their desire to secure guarantees that they would not face prosecution or political exclusion. “The refusal is a negotiating tactic ahead of subsequent talks over what they may face after September 30,” the sources said. September 30 is the deadline set for the withdrawal of US-led international coalition forces from Iraq and for the factions to lay down their weapons. The sources said political discussions within the Coordination Framework and its committees had raised the possibility of transferring the weapons to Iran for storage, on the grounds that most of the arsenal belongs to Tehran, which supplied the groups with it. This applies particularly to some long-range missiles that are not available to the Iraqi armed forces, they added. The sources said Coordination Framework forces were taking the issue seriously because they feared US sanctions and backlash, with Washington insisting that the matter be resolved fully and without delay or stalling. Several factions and Coordination Framework figures had previously set a series of conditions for disarmament that were widely regarded as impossible to meet. They included the complete departure of international coalition forces, the withdrawal of Turkish troops from Iraqi territory, the Iraqi government’s assumption of full control over the country’s airspace and the departure from Iraq of Kurdish opposition parties hostile to Tehran.
