ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq’s four presidencies convened on Wednesday and stressed their commitment to consolidating the state's monopoly on weapons, praising decisions made by armed groups to give up their weapons and sever ties with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

The four leaders, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, President Nizar Amedi, Parliament Speaker Haibat al-Halbousi, and Supreme Judicial Council President Faeq Zaidan, discussed several outstanding political, security, and economic issues facing the country in the Wednesday meeting.

During the meeting, the presidencies reiterated their commitment to “the principle of restricting arms to the state authority as a fundamental pillar of the rule of law and state authority.”

In his cabinet program announced earlier in May, Zaidi cited limiting weapons to the state as the 'first pillar' of the state sovereignty section. The premier has ramped up efforts to implement the objective since taking office.

Numerous pro-Iran armed factions have acceded to Zaidi's efforts to restrict weapons to the Iraqi state, with some groups, including Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) and Kataib al-Imam Ali, having also agreed to distance themselves from the PMF.

The leaders also commended the positions taken by the militias, dubbing it a move that “enhances security and stability and preserves the country’s unity, sovereignty, and independent national decision-making.”

Last week, Iraq’s Joint Operations Command announced the formation of a joint committee tasked with severing armed groups’ affiliations with the PMF.

The pro-Iran Kataib al-Imam Ali militia handed over information on its "personnel, weapons, equipment, and vehicles" to the Iraqi Joint Operations Command on Wednesday ahead of its announced integration into the official Iraqi security apparatus.

In May, influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced the “complete separation” of his Saraya al-Salam armed faction from his Shiite National Movement and the group’s “complete integration into Iraq's state security forces.”

However, several pro-Iran Iraqi armed factions, including Kataib Hezbollah, Ashab al-Kahf, Harakat al-Nujaba, and Saraya Awliya al-Dam, have rejected calls to hand over their weapons to the state, pushing back against the government-backed disarmament process.

Despite the PMF nominally being under the auspices of the Iraqi state, the US-Israeli war on Iran saw many pro-Iran PMF factions conducting unilateral strikes on US interests, as well as other targets such as hotels and infrastructure in the Kurdistan Region, in contravention of Baghdad's neutrality.