policy
An prominent Iraqi politician asserted on Friday that efforts to restrict weapons to state control in Iraq will not truly materialize, suggesting any arms handover process might be merely symbolic. Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted Saleh al-Arabawi, head of the Waei Movement, stating his view: "I do not believe that weapons will actually be restricted; rather, it may be circumvented, or a symbolic handover process may occur." Al-Arabawi attributed this prediction to armed groups following a "cross-border ideology and leadership, having received no order to abandon weapons to this moment." He added, "the ongoing war necessitates strengthening and expanding fronts, not the opposite." Al-Arabawi believes the Iraqi government faces two options: confrontation and conflict, which he sees as detrimental to the state and its system; or dialogue and settlement, an approach "requiring periods that might span the lifetime of this government." He further linked the issue's fate to "the war or American-Iranian negotiations; the wider the battle's scope, the more complex weapons restriction becomes, and vice versa."
