Iraqi militia Harakat Al-Nujaba rejects disarmament for armed groups
Media Monitor
Iraqi militia Harakat Al-Nujaba rejects disarmament for armed groups
BAGHDAD — Harakat Al-Nujaba, an Iraqi militia group, has rejected calls for disarmament, with its political bureau head, Ali Al-Asadi, dismissing recent government and foreign statements on the matter as a “British-American project to provoke political and sectarian strife” in Iraq.
“There is no dialogue regarding the dissolution of resistance factions or the disarmament of their weapons, and the government has not approached us about this,” Al-Asadi said in an interview with Alsumaria TV. “We, in Harakat Al-Nujaba, have not and will not lay down our weapons… and we possess heavy weaponry.”
He also claimed that the U.S. “wishes to sit with” them but that they “do not sit with the enemy.”
Al-Asadi’s comments followed recent remarks by Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, who called for limiting weapons to state control. Hussein told Reuters last week that armed groups operating independently in Iraq must disarm or integrate into the nation’s security forces.
“Many political leaders, many political parties started to raise a discussion, and I hope that we can convince the leaders of these groups to lay down their arms and then to be part of the armed forces under the responsibility of the government,” Hussein said.
Al-Asadi dismissed Hussein’s statements as “unrealistic” and also criticized Sayyed Ammar Al-Hakim, leader of the National Wisdom Movement, who recently suggested that the presence of resistance weapons harms Iraq’s economy. Al-Asadi labeled Al-Hakim’s remarks as “early election propaganda.”
On Jan. 4, Al-Hakim argued that Iraq’s stability relies on limiting weapons to state control, combating corruption, and fostering national unity. Speaking at a memorial ceremony for Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir Al-Hakim, he emphasized the need to uphold the rule of law to build a strong state.
The debate over militia disarmament has intensified following the collapse of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in Syria and the decline in Iran’s regional influence. The Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of mostly Shia militias established in 2014 to combat the Islamic State, remains central to this discussion.
Formally integrated into Iraq’s armed forces in 2016, the PMF still operates with considerable autonomy and wields influence over Iraq’s political and security landscape. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani has rejected external calls to dismantle the PMF, saying, “It is unacceptable to make demands and impose conditions on Iraq, especially when it comes to dismantling the PMF.”
Iraq’s Shia Coordination Framework denied reports that it had discussed integrating the PMF into the Ministry of Defense during its most recent meeting.
Some excerpt from Al-Asadi’s interview on Alsumaria TV:
There is a British-American project to provoke political and sectarian strife in Iraq.
There is no dialogue regarding the dissolution of resistance factions or the disarmament of their weapons, and the government has not approached us about this.
We, in Harakat Al-Nujaba, have not and will not lay down our weapons… and we possess heavy weaponry. The West does not consider us outlaws; rather, it seeks dialogue with us. America wishes to sit with us, but we do not sit with the enemy.
The foreign minister’s statements regarding the weapons of the resistance and its future are unrealistic.
Sayyed Ammar Al-Hakim’s remarks about the threat resistance weapons pose to the Iraqi economy are early election propaganda.
Sayyed [Grand Ayatollah] Al-Sistani did not mean the resistance factions in his statement about limiting arms to the state.
The resistance will lay down its weapons if Sayyed Sistani explicitly and directly requests it from us.
The Islamic resistance in Iraq carried out 180 operations during the “Al-Toofan War” in just one month.