Iraqi militias supported by Iran ready to disarm, say commanders

Several powerful militia groups supported by Iran in Iraq are ready to disarm for the first time to avoid the threat of an increasing conflict with the United States administration Trump, 10 senior commanders and Iraqi officials in Reuters.

The decision to defuse tensions follows repeated warnings issued in private by US officials to the Iraqi government since Trump took power in January, according to sources that include six local commanders of four major militias.

Officials told Baghdad as he acts to dissolve the militias operating on its soil, America could target groups with air strikes, added the people.

Izzat Al-Shahbndar, a high-end Shiite Muslim politician close to the Iraq leader alliance, told Reuters that the discussions between Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani and several militia leaders were “very advanced”, and the groups were inclined to comply with American calls for disarmament.

“The factions are not stubbornly act or insign up to continue in their current form,” he said, adding that the groups were “fully aware” that they could be targeted by the United States.

The six militia commanders interviewed in Baghdad and a southern province, who asked for the anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation, come from Kataib Hezbollah, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, Nujabaa, Kataib Sayyed Al-Shuhada and Ansarullah al-Awfiyaa.

“Trump is ready to take the war with us at worse levels, we know, and we want to avoid such a bad scenario,” said a commander of Kataib Hezbollah, the most powerful Shiite militia, who spoke from behind a black facial mask and sunglasses.

Commanders said their main ally and boss, the Military Force of the Elite Revolution of Iran (IRGC), had given them its blessing to make the decisions they deemed necessary to avoid being trained in a potentially ruinous conflict with the United States and Israel.

The militias are part of the Islamic resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of around 10 online Shiite armed factions which collectively order around 50,000 combatants and arsenals which include long-range missiles and anti-aircraft weapons, according to two security officials who monitor militias.

The group, a key pillar of the Iranian network of regional proxy forces, claimed the responsibility of dozens of missile and drone attacks against Israel and American forces in Iraq and Syria since the Gaza War broke out about 18 months ago.

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Farhad Alaaeldin, the Souani foreign bond advisor, told Reuters in response to questions about disarmament talks that the Prime Minister was determined to guarantee that all weapons in Iraq were under the control of the State by “constructive dialogue with various national actors”.

The two Iraqi security officials said the Souanites were pressure for the disarmament of all the militias of the Islamic resistance in Iraq, who declare their allegiance to the Iranian IRGC or the force of QUDs rather than Baghdad.

Certain groups have already largely evacuated their headquarters and reduced their presence in major cities, notably Mosul and Anbar since mid-January for fear of being struck by air attacks, according to officials and commanders.

Many commanders have also intensified their safety measures during this time, more frequently changing their mobile phones, vehicles and residences, they said.

The US State Department said that he had continued to urge Baghdad to brake the militias. “These forces must answer the commander-in-chief of Iraq and not to Iran,” he added.

An American official, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned that there had been cases in the past when the militias had stopped their attacks due to American pressure, and was skeptical that any disarmament would be in the long term.

The IRGC refused to comment on this article while the Iranian and Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministries did not answer questions.

The Iranian axis

Shahbndar, the Shiite politician, said that the Iraqi government had not yet concluded an agreement with militant leaders, with a disarmament mechanism still under discussion. The options envisaged include transforming groups into political parties and integrating them into the Iraqi armed forces, he added.

Although the fate of any disarmament process remains uncertain, the discussions nevertheless mark the first time that the militias have been ready to give ground to a long -standing pressure to the demilitarize.

The change arrives at a precarious moment for the regional “resistance axis” of Tehran which he has established over the decades to oppose Israel and the United States.

Iraq seeks to balance its alliances with America and Iran in its treatment of militias on its soil. The groups have emerged across the country with Iranian financial and military support in the chaotic wake of the 2003 American invasion which overthrew Saddam Hussein, and have become formidable forces which can compete with the national army in fire power.

The US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, told Prime Minister Souani during a telephone call on March 16, shortly after the start of the American strikes on the Houthis, to prevent militias from carrying out revenge attacks against Israel and the American bases in the region in support of their allies, according to two government officials and two informed security sources.

Iraqi -based militias had launched dozens of drone and rocket attacks against Israel in Hamas since the start of the Gaza War and killed three American soldiers in a drone operation in Jordan near the Syrian border last year.

Ibrahim Al-Sumaidaie, a former Souani political advisor, said on Iraqi state television that the United States had long pressed Iraq leaders to dismantle Shiite militias, but this time Washington may not take no response.

“If we do not comply voluntarily, it can be forced from the outside and the strength.”