Baghdad's struggle in the middle of Washington's pressure; Will the "Ministry of Federal Security" be established in the Zaidi government?

Service of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region - While the international pressure, especially the United States, has increased on the Iraqi government to organize the situation of the armed forces outside of the official structure (military and law enforcement), field reports including Sharq al-Awsat and al-Arabi al-Jadeed tell of the parallel movements of Washington and Baghdad to change the security map of Iraq. These developments are followed in the two axes of "staged plan for liquidation" and "creating a new ministerial structure".

Kordpress

According to the report of "Al-Sharq Al-Awsat" newspaper, the United States has developed a phased plan to determine the task of the Hashd al-Shaabi forces. The main axes of this plan include disarming heavy weapons, removing the leaders of armed groups and replacing them with professional and trained officers to monitor the infrastructure of these groups.

Sharq Al-Awsat wrote that the presence of David Petraeus, a retired American general, in Baghdad last week as an "independent expert" working on the disarmament roadmap, shows Washington's seriousness in this case. Reports indicate that the fate of weapons in the possession of armed groups has been the focus of Petraeus' consultations with senior Iraqi officials. On the other hand, political currents aligned with Iran in Iraq consider these movements as a threat to their interests in the region and are consulting to deal with such scenarios.

Baghdad solution; "Federal Ministry of Security" as a safe margin

On the other side of the field, the Iraqi government has put a plan to establish a "Federal Ministry of Security" in order to manage these international pressures while avoiding direct conflict with armed groups. According to the report of the Qatari newspaper "Al Arabi Al Jadid", this project has been proposed as a middle solution.

The purpose of establishing this ministry is to gather all armed units outside of the army and police structure - including Hashd al-Shaabi and other militia groups - under a single legal and organizational umbrella. The important point for the observers of the Kurdistan Region is that in this proposed plan, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, the Hashd forces, the rapid reaction units and the federal police are all defined in this new security structure.

Challenges and future prospects

Security analysts believe that Baghdad pursues two major goals with this plan: 1. Response to Western demands: providing a regular and "legal" structure to justify the government's arms monopoly and reduce international pressure. 2. Internal crisis management: preventing a harsh confrontation with armed groups and guiding them towards integration into the government body in a way that the central government can control it.

However, experts believe that this plan is still in the "serious ideation" stage. The deep differences between the Shiite groups supporting and opposing this plan, as well as operational challenges to combine heterogeneous military structures (from Peshmerga to Hashd and federal forces), are major obstacles on the way of this project.

The future of these developments will show whether Baghdad will be able to solve the complex puzzle of the "multiplicity of armed forces" after 2003 with this proposed ministry, or whether this plan will only become a diplomatic cover to buy time against Washington's pressure.

Publication of this report does not mean confirmation of all its contents by Kurdpress news agency and only reflects regional media reports.

News ID 160810