‘Madness’: Kataib Hezbollah-linked bloc says disarmament law will not pass

BAGHDAD — A parliamentary bloc affiliated with Kataib Hezbollah said it expects the government’s proposed law restricting weapons to state control to fail, and set a condition for disarmament that its own MP described as impossible to meet.

The weapons of “the resistance or the PMF are a means whose necessity ends when the reason ends, which is the American withdrawal from Iraq — a genuine withdrawal that includes the military, political and economic withdrawal — and that is impossible to happen,” Miqdad al-Khafaji of the Huqooq bloc, headed by MP Hussein Mounes, told Alawla TV. Many lawmakers inside and outside the Coordination Framework oppose passing the law before U.S. forces leave, he said. “I do not expect this law to be passed.”

Khafaji set out the factions’ presence inside the Popular Mobilization Forces by brigade: one for Harakat al-Nujaba, one for Kataib al-Imam Ali, three for Kataib Hezbollah, unspecified forces for Asaib Ahl al-Haq and between 20 and 22 for the Badr Organization. All follow the prime minister’s orders, he said.

He argued the factions had never turned their weapons on the state. “Our weapons have never threatened the state. Therefore, they are state weapons and disciplined weapons,” he said, adding that weapons should be treated as hostile only when they kill civilians or threaten state institutions. Asked whether disarmament would be justified, he said: “Did we kill Iraqis, for example?”

Khafaji said armed groups defended the state when the Islamic State group advanced in 2014, claiming about 65% of weapons then under state control fell into the group’s hands, and that fighters relied on Iranian supplies for about 18 months. “For a year and a half of fighting, we had nothing but the Iranian BKC, the Iranian launcher, and all the rest of the weapons were Iranian,” he said. “Even the rockets we fired, from the fuses to the rest of the components, were Iranian.” He called disarmament “madness that Iraq will regret,” and said it would be followed by the integration of the PMF at Washington’s request.

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has set Sept. 30, when the U.S.-led coalition mission ends, as the date for bringing all weapons under state control. Saraya al-Salam, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and the Imam Ali Battalions have moved to comply; Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat al-Nujaba and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada have refused.