Exclusive: Qaani meets Iraqi leaders over faction weapons, Hormuz

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iranian Quds Force Commander Esmail Qaani arrived in Baghdad on Monday at the head of a high-level military and security delegation, an informed source told Shafaq News.

During the unannounced visit, Qaani met Iraqi officials from the Coordination Framework, the country's main alliance of Shiite political forces, and armed faction leaders, with talks focusing on the factions' weapons and the possibility of allowing Iraq to export oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

The September 30 deadline has become central to Iraq’s efforts to bring weapons under state control, with the State Administration Coalition,which brings together the country's main Shiite,warned that armed activity outside official institutions after that date would be handled under the Anti-Terrorism Law. Several Iran-aligned factions, including Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat Al-Nujaba, and Kataib Sayyid Al-Shuhada, have rejected relinquishing their military capabilities, linking the issue to the withdrawal of foreign forces and guarantees against external attacks, while other groups have signaled willingness to reorganize their relationship with the state.

Read more: Days to disarm Iraq's factions: deadline or negotiable ceiling?

Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz to most commercial shipping after US and Israeli strikes on February 28, disrupting Iraq’s main route for crude exports and initially cutting shipments to about 800,000 barrels per day. Tehran later granted Iraq an exemption allowing its oil tankers to transit the waterway, but exports have remained constrained by the wider closure and regional conflict.

Read more: Iraq's oil revenues under US financial guard 23 years after invasion