Iraq’s Asaib Ahl al-Haq rejects link to anti-disarmament declaration

Politics iraq breaking Qais Al-Khazali Asaib Ahl al-Haq Disarmament

2026-01-06T08:42:06+00:00

Shafaq News– Baghdad

Asaib Ahl al-Haq disavowed, on Tuesday, a declaration attributed to the Iraqi Resistance Coordination Committee that rejected the disarmament of armed groups.

In a statement issued by his media office, the group’s leader Qais Al-Khazali reiterated “our clear and publicly stated position, declared since 2017, that weapons should be exclusively in the hands of the Iraqi state, based on the constitution, the directives of the wise religious leadership, and a purely Iraqi will without foreign interference, and in accordance with the circumstances determined by the supreme interests of the state.”

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم﴿وَأَعِدّوا لَهُم مَا اسْتَطَعْتُم مِّن قُوَّةٍ وَمِن رِّبَاطِ الْخَيْلِ تُرْهِبُونَ بِهِ عَدُوَّ اللَّهِ وَعَدُوَّكُمْ وَآخَرِينَ مِن دُونِهِمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَهُمُ اللَّهُ يَعْلَمُهُمْ ۚ وَمَا تُنفِقُوا مِن شَيْءٍ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ يُوَفَّ إِلَيْكُمْ… pic.twitter.com/0RTUUbblwK
— المكتب الإعلامي للشيخ الأمين (@khazalimedia) January 6, 2026

Separately, senior movement figure Sanad Alhamdany, who also heads alahad TV, rejected any link to the declaration in a post on X.

ننفي صلتنا بالبيان الأخير الصادر عن الهيئة التنسيقية للمقاومة العراقية pic.twitter.com/lxSmwWQBbB
— Sanad Alhamdany | سند الحمداني (@SanadAlhamdany) January 5, 2026

Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) represents the most politically embedded model among Iraq’s Iran-aligned armed factions. Formed in 2006 after splitting from Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, and currently within the PMF’s 41, 42, and 43 brigades, the group has combined military activity with sustained participation in electoral politics through the Sadiqoon bloc, now part of the Shiite Coordination Framework.

The clarification followed a statement issued on Sunday by the Iraqi Resistance Coordination Committee, which listed several factions, including Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Kataib Karbala, Ansar Allah al-Awfiya, Harakat al-Nujaba, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, and Kataib Hezbollah. The declaration called on the next government to end all foreign military presence, rejecting any discussion of resistance weapons before what it described as the restoration of full national sovereignty.

Debate over weapons outside state control intensified in late 2025. Several Iran-aligned factions, including Kataib Imam Ali, Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, Ansar Allah Al-Awfiya, and Kataib Sayyid Al-Shuhada, indicated readiness to support limiting arms to the state. Other factions, however, rejected that approach, with Kataib Hezbollah arguing that state sovereignty and security must first be ensured through the withdrawal of US, NATO, and Turkish forces, while framing armed resistance as a legitimate right.