Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has said that the Iraqi government will bring all weapons under the control of the state once the US-led anti-ISIS coalition in the country withdraws, comments that come as he is under increasing pressure from the US to disarm the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
The PMF is a coalition of mostly Shia militias, including groups aligned with Iran, that was formed in 2014 to fight ISIS and is formally a part of Iraq’s security forces. Since the large battles against ISIS ended during the first Trump administration, the US has sporadically clashed with the PMF, which has involved significant US airstrikes against the group.
Al-Sudani said that some factions in Iraq view the US-led coalition as an occupying force. “There is no ISIS. Security and stability? Thank God it’s there … so give me the excuse for the presence of 86 states (in a coalition),” al-Sudani told Reuters on Monday.
“Then, for sure, there will be a clear program to end any arms outside of state institutions. This is the demand of all,” the Iraqi leader said, adding that once the coalition exits Iraq, the militias in the PMF can either join official security forces or lay down their weapons.
Last year, the US and Iraq signed a deal that would end the mission of the US-led coalition in Iraq by September 2026, but it remains unclear if US troops will actually leave the country. At the time of the signing, the Biden administration said that the US was “not withdrawing from Iraq” and that, while ending the coalition, the US would remain in the country under a “bilateral security partnership.”
The US has recently pulled some military personnel out of the country, but the War Department has said that, at least for now, fewer than 2,000 US troops will remain. The US is keeping troops at the Ain al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq, at a base in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, and a small number of advisors in Baghdad.
Over the weekend, Iraqi Defense Minister Thabit al-Abbasi said the US had issued its “final” and “most serious” warning regarding the disarmament of the PMF. He also suggested that US War Secretary Hegseth told him the US would be conducting some sort of military operation in the region.
Al-Abbasi said that Hegseth’s message “concerns armed factions and includes a direct threat in the event that those factions carry out any operations in response to what Washington intends to do in the region near Iraq in the coming days.”
