ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraq’s Iran-aligned Kataib Hezbollah on Saturday welcomed efforts by armed groups outside of the so-called Islamic Resistance to hand over weapons to the Iraqi state, offering to help Baghdad with the transfer and storage of arms.

“We welcome every step taken by our brothers (not involved in the Islamic Resistance) that aims to confine weapons to the state, strengthen security, stability, and civil peace, and preserve the resources of the dear Iraqi people,” the group’s spokesperson Abu Mujahid al-Assaf said in a statement.

Earlier in May, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi released his program for the next government. A copy of the program seen by The New Region showed that the “first pillar” of the state sovereignty section includes “restricting arms to the hands of the state.”

Assaf added that they are ready to help the state in “providing some facilitation and guidance between these entities and the Popular Mobilization Forces [PMF] leadership concerned with this matter.”

Despite being formally integrated into Iraq’s PMF, which Kataib Hezbollah is also part of, many armed groups maintain close ties to Iran and have repeatedly been accused by the US of operating outside full state control.

Many of these groups carried out attacks on US interests and neighboring countries during the recent US-Israeli war on Iran, with Assaf condemning retaliatory strikes by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Jordan on Iraqi territory.

Reuters reported in mid-May that both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait conducted kinetic strikes on pro-Iran militias within Iraq during the course of the regional war in retaliation for strikes by pro-Iran Iraqi factions, with Assaf accusing Iraqi politicians of serving as "tools of denial" for failing to adequately condemn such actions.

He also recommended that Kataib Hezbollah receive “specialized weapons” including drones, suicide aircraft, cruise missiles, anti-tank missiles, adding that “there are no specialists in state agencies.”

Illegal weapons in Iraq stand out as one of the most pressing challenges to security and stability. Unofficial data puts the number of arms within Iraqi society at around 15 million medium and light weapons, with armed groups and tribes possessing the bulk of them.

Influential Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr’s also decided to integrate his armed group Saraya al-Salam into the Iraqi state, reiterating calls for all armed factions to follow suit, a move welcomed by Iraqi leaders.