Can Baghdad gain control over paramilitary groups amid US war on Iran?

With the US withdrawing its forces from its territories, Iraq is moving towards bringing the country’s powerful paramilitary groups under greater state control, a process that will require navigating competing interests among the groups, Baghdad and Washington. It is unlikely to amount to straightforward disarmament, instead seeking to limit these groups’ ability to act autonomously by bringing their weapons more closely under state control and, in some cases, integrating fighters into formal state structures. Iraq’s Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has now set a deadline of 30 June 2027 to complete this process.