Zaidi pushes weapons deadline nine months, to June 2027

NEW YORK — Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has set June 30, 2027 as the date for completing the transfer of armed factions’ weapons to the state, nine months after the Sept. 30 deadline he gave President Donald Trump in July, beginning with a 90-day halt to attacks once the coalition leaves.

Zaidi set out the sequence in an interview with The New York Times published on Monday: after the coalition mission ends on Sept. 30, Iraqi armed groups would stop attacks for 90 days, taking the process to the end of December, followed by a gradual handover of weapons to state authorities over the following six months. It is the first time the government has given an end date or described a ceasefire phase.

The original date was Sept. 30. At the White House on July 14 Zaidi told Trump there would be no justification for armed factions after it, and the governing coalition said in August that armed activity outside state authority after that date could be treated under the Anti-Terrorism Law. It has since drifted. Security adviser Qasim al-Araji said in late August that Sept. 30 applied only to the coalition and marked the start of talks, Nouri al-Maliki said this month that disarmament was no longer the term being used, and Harakat al-Nujaba said the Coordination Framework had dropped the call to restrict weapons in favour of regulating them. A Hikma Movement spokesperson said last week that general principles would be announced in early October and implemented gradually. On Friday Araji said “there is no specified period for restricting weapons to the state.” On Saturday the spokesperson for the commander-in-chief said the justification for armed activity outside state authority would fall away on Sept. 30.

Zaidi also met Secretary of State Marco Rubio in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, reaffirming “the government’s determination to complete sovereign requirements and move forward with measures to restrict weapons to the state in accordance with constitutional and legal principles,” his office said. “The government is working to consolidate Iraqi-American relations and raise the level of the strategic partnership between the two countries within a framework of constructive economic cooperation,” he said. Rubio expressed support for the government’s measures aimed at “completing the foundations of the state and consolidating the pillars of stability and economic development,” according to Zaidi’s office.

Zaidi is due to meet Trump again during the visit.