Page 6 - MEOG Week 21

MEOG Commentary MEOG
Iraqi PM looks reform PMU
Reforming the Popular Mobilization Unit appears to be PM al-Kadhimi’s next step in gaining control of the various forces threatening Iraq.
IraQ
What:
The new Prime Minister of Iraq has taken steps to rein in an Iran-backed militia.
Why:
The militia threatens the stability of Iraq.
What next:
Al-Kadhimi’s moves will be watched with interest buthehasalotof challenges.
LAST week newly appointed Iraqi Prime Min- ister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s government raided the headquarters of the Iran-backed militia Thar Allah for shooting at protesters in the Iraqi city of Basra. It now appears that al-Kadhimi is seek- ing to reorganise the Popular Mobilization Units under the framework of the PMU law.
Al-Kadhimi faces a difficult task in imple- menting his reform plan for the PMUs organi- sation and bringing its various military factions under the full control of the Iraqi state. He has started approaching PMU leaders, but reining in the organisation will not be an easy task.
In his first days in office, al-Kadhimi took some steps against the PMU. He ordered security forces in the southern province of Basra to close the Thar Allah al-Islami militia headquarters and arrest its leaders for shooting at protesters; one demonstrator had wound up dead.
Security forces also arrested Maytham al-Okaili, who is a prominent member of Saraya al-Khorasani, on May 21. Al-Okaili was accused of forming a gang and being involved in abduct- ing and blackmailing several citizens.
Saraya al-Khorasani is one of the top pro-Iran factionsinthePMUandisledbySayyedHamed al-Jazaeri. It is one of the militias that have been accused by protesters of having taken part in kill- ing and abducting demonstrators.
Al-Kadhimi visited the main PMU office May 16 to break the ice.
He praised the PMU for its military campaign against the Islamic State (IS) after the Sunni mil- itant group seized a large chunk of Iraqi terri- tory in 2014. Although IS no longer holds any territory, it has started a new wave of terrorist
operations in the country.
The visit was a trust-building attempt that
was welcomed by PMU leaders, who offered a PMU uniform to al-Kadhimi and asked him to put it on as a sign of closeness between the prime minister and the PMU.
However, the honeymoon did not last long. On May 19, a Katyusha rocket hit the Green Zone next to the British Embassy in the first such attack since al-Kadhimi took office May 6. The rocket launcher was found later on Pal- estine Street, where several PMU headquarters are located.
Also, soon after the prime minister’s visit, Jawad al-Telbawi, a prominent leader in Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, slammed al-Kadhimi for his words about the PMU. Al-Kadhimi had praised the PMU forces and called them “children of Gil- gamesh and other heroes of Iraqi history before and after Islam.”
Telbawi tweeted: “We are not children of Gil- gamesh and we are not proud of being related to him. We are children of Ali and Hassan and Hussein and we are students of the school that teaches Hayhāt minnā l-dhilla (Never to humiliation).”
This was in reference to a famous saying from the third Shiite imam, Hussein, who is the inspir- ing symbol of the Shiite militant movement and who died in the battle for Karbala in the year 680.
In the same vein, and in celebration of Quds day on May 22, Baghdad and other central and southern cities have been filled with posters of Iranians — Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Quds Force commander Esmail
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 21 27•May•2020