Esmail Qaani, commander of Iran's Quds Force, made an unannounced visit to Baghdad this week, holding behind-the-scenes meetings with Iraqi political and security leaders and with commanders of Shia paramilitary factions, according to a source cited by Al Jazeera. [1]
The message Tehran carried was direct: no disarmament for now. The Iranian side stressed "finding a political compromise instead of sliding into confrontation between the government and the armed factions that refuse to hand over their weapons," and pressed for "no handing over of weapons of the factions at the present time." [1]
The visit lands against a hardening deadline. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has directed parliament's Security and Defence Committee to draft a law restricting weapons to the state, and he faces a September 30 deadline to bring all arms under state control, part of a 2024 agreement with the US-led coalition to end the coalition's combat presence by the end of September. [1]
Some factions, including Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba, have resisted disarmament, while other armed groups have agreed to fold into state forces. [1]
The contest turns on a single question: who holds the guns inside Iraq, the state or the Iran-aligned factions. Qaani's trip is Tehran's answer, delivered in person, weeks before al-Zaidi's clock runs out.
