Peshmerga are not part of the weapons process, Iraqi president says

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s president said the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga are a constitutional institution outside the scope of the drive to bring weapons under state control, and that only two or three armed factions have yet to hand over their arms.

Nizar Amedi told the eighth Baghdad Dialogue Conference that the constitution requires weapons to be held exclusively by the state and that the religious authority in Najaf holds the same position. “We must engage in dialogue and reach an understanding with the armed factions to restrict weapons to the state through an Iraqi national solution,” he said. The factions had fought the Islamic State group and “shed their blood,” he said, and were now being asked to hand over weapons and integrate into the security forces.

His remarks answer Kataib Hezbollah, which this month set the dissolution of the Peshmerga as one of three conditions for any accommodation over its own weapons, alongside a full American withdrawal and the expulsion of Turkish forces from northern Iraq. Its security official, Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, called the Peshmerga “the most heavily armed militias and the most dangerous to Iraq’s unity.” Their standing rests on Article 121 of the constitution, which makes regional governments responsible for internal security forces including police, security services and guards of the region. Amedi said attacks on the Kurdistan Region had “no justification.”

He said no Iranian official had asked Iraq to delay the process, and that Iranian officials described it as an Iraqi decision. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf visited Baghdad last week. Iraq does not accept the use of its territory to attack any country, Amedi said, and is trying to stay out of regional conflict. The U.S.-led coalition came at Iraq’s request to fight the Islamic State group and is no longer needed, he said, with its withdrawal set for Sept. 30.

Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat al-Nujaba and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada have refused to disarm; Saraya al-Salam, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and the Imam Ali Battalions have moved to comply. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said in July that there would be no justification for any faction after Sept. 30, and the governing coalition said this month that armed activity outside state authority after that date would be treated under the Anti-Terrorism Law.