By Anas al-Bar | 2025-03-22

Iran-aligned Iraqi militias have rejected government demands to surrender their illegal weapons and integrate into state institutions, defying an initiative put forward in January by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

Their recalcitrance comes despite weeks of renewed political negotiations and calls from the government, religious authorities and international community for state monopoly over weapons.

Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein confirmed the government had initiated dialogue to convince these factions to lay down arms and merge with regular security forces, Al-Arabi al-Jadeed reported.

But militias such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq, whose leader Qais al-Khazali in early March continued to voice defiance, threaten to entangle the country in regional conflicts that undermine its sovereignty and national interests.

"They are armed groups that primarily follow Islamic Republic doctrine and agenda," political analyst Ghanem al-Abed told Al-Fassel.

"They have a long record of crimes against Iraqis and violations that threaten the stability and security of their country," he said. "They fear accountability, so they flex their influence and weapons to remain untouchable."

With the Iranian regime losing its grip in Lebanon and Syria, and its Houthi allies in Yemen facing intense US military pressure, these Iraqi militias have become the regime's critical remaining proxy force.

"The Iraqi militias are Iran's last remaining arms in the region," al-Abed said, adding that Iran will not allow their dismantling "as they are the last leverage it has to threaten and blackmail the West."

Destabilizing proxies

Iran-backed Iraqi militia Harakat al-Nujaba recently threatened retaliation against US operations in Yemen, illustrating how these militias work together, prioritizing the Iranian regime's agenda over Iraqi and regional stability.

"Tehran may mobilize them to attack international or regional interests and create chaos if its nuclear facilities are targeted," al-Abed said.

"The Iraqi state today has well-trained, well-armed and highly competent regular forces capable of defending the country," Iraqi Center for Strategic Studies head Ghazi Faisal Hussein told Al-Fassel.

"There is no justification for the continued existence of armed proxy groups."

These factions have become "pernicious tools" in Tehran's hands, Hussein said, adding that "they currently pose the greatest threat to the country, especially given their growing military capabilities and their financial resources."

Forty factions that fought the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) are ready to disarm and be absorbed into the Iraqi forces, Hussein said.

But "the 34 factions that declare loyalty exclusively to Iranian leader (Ali Khamenei) and follow Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force orders refuse to do so and defy the national will," he added.

"They help finance the regime in Tehran through currency smuggling, parallel trade, drug trafficking and other illicit activities," he added.