Exclusive: Al-Zaydi’s government opens the “frozen funds” file to integrate factions: The decision rests with Washington.
Exclusive: Al-Zaydi’s government opens the “frozen funds” file to integrate factions: The decision rests with Washington.
2026-05-27
Shafaq News – Baghdad
An informed source revealed on Tuesday that the government of Ali al-Zaidi intends to address Washington to release part of Iraq’s frozen funds in some international banks to cover the allocations for the elements of the factions that will be integrated into the directorates of the Popular Mobilization Forces and some security and military ministries.
According to the source, who spoke to Shafaq News Agency, integrating the members of the armed factions who agreed to hand over their weapons to the government and join the government institution requires large financial allocations compared to their numbers, which exceed 800,000 people.
The source explained that most factions agreed to hand over weapons, with the exception of the Al-Nujaba Movement and the Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades.
According to the source, the issue of releasing frozen funds does not only include funds in Washington banks, but also in some European countries. If Washington agrees to Iraq’s request, the remaining banks in other countries will certainly agree to release the frozen Iraqi funds.
According to the source, significant changes will affect the Popular Mobilization Forces after the completion of the process of integrating the factions’ elements and sorting its directorates according to the approved structure of the institution, the most important of which is replacing the head of the body with an alternative candidate, “Ali Mayah Al-Zaidi”, in the event that “Abu Fadak” is not approved as a replacement for Al-Fayyad.
The source concluded that “meetings between the leaders of the coordination framework are ongoing to resolve the issue of armed factions operating outside the official state framework.”
Recently, disagreements have escalated within the Coordination Framework forces regarding the American proposal to disarm the factions and dissolve or integrate the Popular Mobilization Forces.
An informed government source had previously revealed that some political forces and armed factions had shown “flexibility” regarding the issue of restricting weapons to the state, after having been rigid on this matter, indicating that the process of handing over weapons would be within a specific timeframe.
Prior to that, an informed source had revealed to Shafaq News Agency on May 9 that the Coordination Framework had agreed with Prime Minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi to form a committee tasked with disarming armed factions, coinciding with the call made by the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr.
On May 15, Nazim al-Saidi, head of the executive council of the al-Nujaba Movement, one of the most prominent armed factions, confirmed that the “weapons control” clause included in the new government’s program does not include “resistance weapons” but rather those that cause “chaos”.
shafaq.com
