Al-Nujaba rejects PMF merger, calls disarmament push ‘US project’
Shafaq News- Baghdad
Harakat Al-Nujaba reaffirmed its rejection to proposals to integrate the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) into Iraq’s formal security structure, Hussein al-Saeedi, deputy head of the movement’s executive council, stated on Friday, describing the initiative as an American project.
that the group’s weapons are “non-negotiable.”
In an address during a tribal gathering in Basra titled “Iraq’s Tribes Support the People of Principle”, Al-Saeedi said the “weapons of the resistance are a trust, historical, non-negotiable, and religious responsibility to protect the land and holy sites,” adding that disarming the “resistance” would leave society without protection amid ongoing threats.
“ The Islamic resistance supports the peaceful transfer of power despite not holding political representation in current or previous governments,” he stressed, referring to discussions surrounding a reported plan to merge the PMF, Federal Police, and Rapid Response Forces into what he described as a Federal Security Ministry.
“The project to merge the PMF is ineffective and impossible to implement,” he said, warning that those insisting on pursuing it “will pay a political and popular price.”
He also argued that the PMF, Federal Police, and Rapid Response Forces derived their strength from remaining independent of what he called “American dominance,” noting that efforts to dissolve the PMF’s ideological identity were “completely rejected.”
The remarks come following a renewed debate over arms control and the future of armed factions in Iraq following the approval of Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi’s government program by parliament earlier this month. The program included a pledge to restrict weapons exclusively to state institutions.
Harakat al-Nujaba Secretary-General Akram al-Kaabi recently rejected US calls to disarm Iraqi armed factions, calling this a “red line” that would not be abandoned “even at the cost of lives.”
Former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Aal-Sudani had also issued directives in April ordering tighter state control over weapons and imposing stricter measures against armed groups operating outside the law.
Founded in 2013 by Akram Al-Kaabi after splitting from Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, Al-Nujaba operates under the PMF umbrella and was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019. Unlike several Iran-aligned factions affiliated with the Shiite Coordination Framework (CF), Al-Nujaba does not hold parliamentary seats and is not formally part of the alliance, which controls around 180 seats in Iraq's 329-member parliament.
Read more: What does Iraq's new government promise? A guide to Ali Al-Zaidi's ministerial program
