The Iraqi militias supported by Iran are considering disarmament in the midst of threats of the Trump administration

BAGHDAD – Several powerful militia groups supported by Iran in Iraq are ready to disarm for the first time to avoid the threat of a growing 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 US President Donald 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 discussions between Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani and several militia leaders were “very advanced”, and groups were inclined to comply with American calls.

“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 Kataeb Hezbollah, Al-Nujaba, Kata’ib Sayyid Al-Shuhada and Ansar Allah Al-Awfiya.

“Trump is ready to take war with us at worse levels, we know, and we want to avoid such a bad scenario,” said a Kataeb commander Hezbollah, the most powerful Shiite militia, who spoke from behind a black pacemasse 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 resistance 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 the American forces in Iraq and Syria since the Gaza War broke out about 18 months ago with the wave of October 7 by Hamas.

Farhad Alaadin, Sudani Foreign Affairs Advisor, told Reuters in response to questions about disarmament talks that the Iraqi 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 about what any disarmament was long term.

The IRGC refused to comment on this article, while Iranian and Israeli foreign ministries did not answer questions.

Shaken: the axis of the resistance of Iran

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 established at an expensive price during the decades to oppose the influence of Israel and the United States, but has seen seriously weakened since the Palestinian terrorist attack of Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, overthrew the Middle East in conflicts.

Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon has been hammered by Israel since the start of the war, while the Houthi movement in Yemen has been targeted by US air strikes since last month. The fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, another key Iranian ally, has further weakened the influence of the Islamic Republic.

Iraq seeks to balance its alliances with America and Iran in its transactions with 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 US 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.

The 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, and two TDI soldiers were killed and 24 injured in a separate drone attack in Israel.

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.”

Discussions in Iraq take place after a report by the Qatari Al-Arabby Al-A Jade newspaper last month that the United States also warned the Iraqi Prime Minister of “political and economic consequences” unless he assured the release of the Russian-Israeli academic Elizabeth Tsurkov.

The Iraqi national security advisor said the authorities actively sought Tsurkov, a doctoral student at Princeton University and Boursière at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy who would have been held by Islamist terrorists since March 2023.

The Israeli authorities blamed the Iraqi terrorist group supported by Iran Kataeb Hezbollah, although no group claimed its disappearance.

Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.