A committee comprising three senior Iraqi figures is close tofinalizing an "executive plan" to disarm factions within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)that enjoysupport from Iran,Asharq Al-Awsatreportedon 8 May.

Development of the plan, whichwill be presented to US officialsin the next few days, comes amid expected changes to the leadership of key security agenciesunder the incoming government ofAli al-Zaidi.

Zaidi was nominated by the Shia-majority Coordination Framework (CF) political bloc on April 27 as theconsensus candidate to succeed Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. According to sources speaking to the Saudi newspaper, the three-member committee includes Zaidi, Sudani, and the leader of the Badr Organization, Hadi al-Amiri.

Washington hasintensifiedpressure on Iraq's ruling Shia political parties to disarm the anti-terrorist militias and prevent their representatives from participating in the new government.

The sources revealed that the committee has held secret negotiations with leaders of the factions, providing their leaders with"ideas on how to disarm and integrate fighters."

Sources toldAsharq Al-Awsatthat the Badr Organization leader Amiri, who enjoys close relations with Iran, "was supposed to help build trust with the factions and persuade them to engage with the state." However,some meetings "did not proceed calmly" due to the request to disarm.

A spokesperson for one faction within the PMF said that Kataib Hezbollah, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, and Harakat al-Nujabarejected handing over their weapons to any party whatsoever. The spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the three factions were "prepared to pay any price resulting from their refusal to disarm."

The PMF were created in 2014 with support from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force to fight ISIS and were later formally incorporated into the Iraqi armed forces.

During the war between the US and Iran that began on 28 February, the US air force bombed PMF positions across the country, while the resistance factions carried out drone attacks against US bases in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR) and the US embassy in Baghdad.

In a phone call last Wednesday, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reportedly told Zaidi that Washington that the legitimacy of his incoming government would depend on its ability to distance the armed factionsfrom the apparatus of the state.

Source: ZeroHedge News