Iraq Says Pro-Iran Groups Have 3 Months to Disarm or Face Repercussions

The Iraqi government has also arrested of dozens of officials in an anti-corruption drive.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi delivers a televised address after assuming office in Baghdad, Iraq, on May 16, 2026. Iraqi Prime Minister Media Office/Handout via Reuters

The Iraqi government has announced a Sept. 30 deadline for pro-Iran terrorist groups in the country to disarm and hand over all their weapons.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s office, in a June 29 statement on X, outlined the government’s reform agenda and development plans, saying that “confining arms to the hands of the state is not merely a slogan, but a policy already being implemented.”

“After this date, all weapons outside the state framework will be subject to legal redress,” Iraqi government spokesman Haider al-Aboudi told a weekly press conference.

The Sept. 30 deadline coincides with the end of the presence of the U.S.-led international coalition in Iraq that was established in 2014 at the request of the Iraqis to fight ISIS. The Islamic extremist terrorist group has largely been defeated in the country, with NATO forces in the coalition withdrawing in March following the start of the Iran War.

The Iraqi government is committed to disarming the foreign-backed terrorist groups, “particularly as Coalition forces are scheduled to complete their withdrawal by Sept. 30,” the prime minister’s office said.

According to a June 15 joint statement, al-Zaidi and U.S. envoy Tom Barrack said the Iraqi government has plans to ensure “the complete disarmament and disbandment of all armed groups and formations” operating outside Iraqi state control to ensure that “Iraqi territory cannot be used by any side to threaten regional peace.”

Following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Shiite-majority Iraq and the toppling of the Saddam regime, Iraq became a battleground for various groups, but also for proxies of neighboring Iran. Tehran ​spent decades and billions of dollars building up its regional Shiite network, which has consistently attacked U.S. facilities and bases hosting U.S. troops across the region.

Many of the terrorist groups in Iraq have maintained close ties to Shiite-majority Tehran—the prominent paramilitary umbrella organization Popular Mobilization Forces being one example. The terrorist groups include Iran-backed ones such as Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, and others. They form a ​key pillar of Iran’s regional “Axis of Resistance,” stretching from Gaza and Lebanon to Yemen and Iraq.

But Iran’s proxies have been severely weakened since Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel ⁠on Oct. 7, 2023.

Meanwhile, several other powerful Shiite factions in Iraq have been signaling since last year that they are ready to disarm and focus on domestic politics to avert an escalating conflict with the Trump administration.

In the U.S.–Iran MOU signed on June 17, both the United States and Iran agreed that their allies in the current war would immediately and permanently terminate military operations on all fronts.

Upon the signing, the State Department reiterated “expectations that the Iraqi government take immediate measures to ‌dismantle all the tools of Iran’s destabilizing activities in Iraq to include the IRGC and Iran-aligned terrorist militias in Iraq.”

Anti-Corruption Purge

In another major development, al-Zaidi on June 28 ordered the arrests of dozens of Iraqi officials on anti-corruption charges after Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council issued arrest warrants, a ​government spokesperson said.

Iraq’s state news agency, INA, citing a senior official, said at least 47 suspects were detained in Baghdad’s heavily fortified administrative and diplomatic hub, the Green Zone, including members of parliament and government officials.

A senior source cited by INA said some arrests “included members of Parliament whose immunity had been lifted,” stemming ​from testimony by Adnan al-Jumaili, deputy oil minister for refining affairs, after his detention last month, with his statements allegedly implicating a wider circle of officials.

Al-Aboudi said arrests were ongoing, describing them as part of ​a wider effort in which “fighting corruption remained a central pillar of [the government’s] efforts to strengthen ​state institutions and protect public funds.”

Among those detained was Ali Maarij, the deputy oil minister for distribution affairs, the sources said, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The United States imposed sanctions on Maarij in May, accusing him of helping divert Iraqi oil to benefit Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups and of facilitating the blending of Iranian crude with Iraqi oil for export using ​falsified documents.

Iraq’s Oil Ministry ​denied the allegations at ⁠the time, saying the activities described by Washington did not fall within Maarij’s responsibilities.

Maarij could not be reached for comment.

Iraq has seen anti-corruption campaigns before.

Retired U.S. Army general David Petraeus, who commanded coalition forces in Iraq from 2007 to 2008 and led U.S. Central Command from 2008 to 2010 before directing the CIA for a year, said this time may be different, as all of Iraq’s principal state institutions—the judiciary, the prime minister’s office, and the country’s most professional security organization—appear to be “acting together to reassert the control of the state.”

This may mark the beginning of one of the “most consequential political developments in years: the return of the authority of the Iraqi state,” Petraeus wrote in an op-ed published on July 1 in The Washington Post.

“No one will be allowed to misuse the Iraqi people’s wealth or gamble with their future,” al-Zaidi’s office said on X on June 29.

Al-Zaidi, 41, who took office ​in May with the United States’ blessing, pledged to tackle entrenched corruption, which remains one of Iraq’s ​most persistent challenges despite repeated promises by successive governments to hold officials accountable.

He took over as a consensus candidate after former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani stepped aside amid a political deadlock over the next premier. Al-Sudani was brought to power by the Shiite Coordination Framework, a Shiite coalition allied with Iran.

The United States was urging Iraq’s Shiite political blocs to prevent the return of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has close ties to Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Baghdad on June 28 and met with al-Zaidi, President Nizar Amidi, Speaker Haibat al-Halbousi, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, and other officials. He said following the visit that Iraqis were preparing for a mass funeral for former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed on Feb. 28 by targeted U.S.–Israeli airstrikes at the start of the Iran war.

The event will “further strengthen the bonds between our two nations,” Araghchi said on X.

Meanwhile, al-Zaidi is scheduled to visit the White House in mid-July to discuss “a strong and mutually beneficial U.S.–Iraq partnership, able to fulfill Iraqi aspirations for a sovereign, secure, and prosperous future and to deliver tangible benefits for Americans and Iraqis alike.”

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.