ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran's ambassador to Baghdad said his country respects any decision taken by the Iraqi government regarding confining weapons to the state, as Iraq's new cabinet intensifies efforts to rein in Tehran-backed militia groups.
Mohammad Kazem al-Sadeq told the state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA) in an interview published Monday that Baghdad's decision to limit weapons to the state is "an internal Iraqi matter," adding that Tehran "respects any decision the Iraqi government makes in this regard."
However, he added that "we believe attention should be paid to the reasons that drive the armed factions in Iraq to want to keep their weapons, and that their voices should be heard and their concerns and fears addressed."
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who took office last month, has made the state's monopoly on weapons the centerpiece of his governing program, pressing Iran-aligned factions to disarm or fold into the formal security apparatus. Some groups have heeded the call, while several of the more powerful Tehran-backed militias have so far refused to hand over their weapons.
Washington has been pushing Zaidi to move faster. The push for disarmament has taken on added urgency since the eruption of the war between Iran, Israel and the United States, which began on February 28 and wound down in early April after a ceasefire brokered with Pakistani mediation. The fighting spread across the region, and several Gulf states accused Iraqi militia groups of launching attacks from Iraqi territory — allegations Baghdad says it is investigating.
Asked about the role Iraqi armed factions played in the wider conflict, the Iranian ambassador told INA that "Iran did not ask any party to intervene, because it does not need to."
Zaidi's government has signaled it sees disarmament as non-negotiable, even as it has yet to fill the defense and interior ministries, two posts central to enforcing any crackdown on the militias. The prime minister is expected to travel to Washington in mid-July for his first visit to the Trump administration since taking office, with the militia file likely to remain one of the more contentious items on the agenda alongside energy and investment deals.
