US-backed effort to disarm Iraq’s Iran-linked militias hits setback, experts say

The Trump administration’s push to compel the new Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi to dismantle pro-Iran terrorist militias is moving forward — even with some setbacks.

As Mideast experts are taking a wait-and-see approach tinged with mild optimism, a senior Iraqi official announced in late August that Baghdad will not treat Sept.

30 as a deadline to disarm the pro-Iran groups known as the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), also called the Popular Mobilization Forces.

The Iraqi government is seeking to exercise control over the rogue state-affiliated militias with a strategy to integrate them into the state apparatus.

The radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who leads Saraya al-Salam armed group, said in May that he favored integration.

Some of the more hardline pro-Iranian regime militias, like Kataeb Hezbollah and Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, declared that they will not disarm or integrate into the state.

The official, Qasim al-Araji, security advisor to the prime minister, told Al Iraqiya on Aug.

23, "Sept.

30 is the date for the international coalition to depart, not the deadline to hand over weapons." The international coalition is the U.S.-led force that defeated the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria during President Trump’s first term.

It is unclear why Iraq’s government is walking back the disarmament deadline for the PMU.

IRAN'S WAR ON AMERICANS BEGAN DECADES AGO.

THESE FAMILIES STILL CARRY THE SCARS A spokesman for the Iraqi embassy declined to comment on the mixed messaging from Iraq’s government and on the timetable for dissolving or integrating the PMU .

Just days before al-Araji’s announcement, a representative of the Iraqi government sent Fox News Digital a statement: "Prime Minister Ali Faleh Al-Zaidi: All political forces fully agree on moving forward with restricting weapons to state control, and work is underway on mechanisms for surrendering weapons and bringing this issue to a complete end." Al-Zaidi told the Baghdad Dialogue Conference at the same time that "all political forces agree on moving forward to ensure that all arms remain under state authority and on developing mechanisms for the handover of weapons.

There are no intentions or prospects of any military confrontation, and we will not allow Iraq’s enemies to exploit any opportunity.