Tuesday, 22 September 2026

Reports attributed to Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi a phased weapons-control plan beginning after the coalition mission ends on 30 September. Factions would halt attacks for 90 days while receiving assurances against U.S. strikes, then complete weapons handovers by 30 June 2027. Fighters would enter the PMF or other state forces individually, while organizations retaining arms under faction names after the deadline would be treated as outside the law. The timetable departs from security adviser Qasim al-Araji’s position last week that the committee had no fixed deadline. PMF military-media director Muhannad al-Aqabi instead said faction weapons would remain under federal supervision without being surrendered, while Interior Ministry Undersecretary Hussein al-Awadi said the government intended to collect up to six million weapons and restrict possession to security forces. Ashab al-Kahf (assessed Nujaba front) said regulation must wait until every foreign force leaves Iraq, and KSS secretary-general Abu Alaa al-Walai acknowledged faction participation in talks without defining a custody or integration mechanism. The positions now differ over surrender or supervised retention, prior foreign-force withdrawal and whether a deadline can bind the process.

Two Iraqi government sources said Baghdad would suspend operations by Iranian airlines from dawn on 22 September. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was reported saying Iranian airlines would be shut down worldwide from 23 September. He was reported threatening airports and companies providing the airlines with fuel, landing services or ticket sales with exclusion from the dollar system. The Iraqi sources described enforcement as a ban on airline operations, while Bessent’s stated penalty concerned airport services and ticketing rather than overflight.

Parliament voted on 11 recommendations to address fuel shortages. Lawmakers called for reconsidering Cabinet Decision 429 of 2026 on fuel prices and assessing its effects on transport, production and service costs. They also requested an urgent supply plan and detailed reporting on production, imports, consumption, costs, stocks and provincial allocations. The package calls for subsidized petroleum supplies to farmers to resume, tighter oversight from depots to filling stations and a timetable for petroleum-product self-sufficiency. The vote follows Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair’s disclosure that petrol stocks had fallen from around 350 million litres to 107 million litres and that Iraq needed at least 5 million litres of imported petrol each day. Parliament’s Oil and Gas Committee will monitor implementation, but the recommendations set no date for restoring supply or resuming imports.

The Interior Ministry said Iraqi authorities dismantled 250 drug-trafficking networks during the government’s first 100 days, including 34 international groups. Ministry spokesperson Maj. Gen. Miqdad Miri put seizures at 785 kilograms of drugs and 177,000 narcotic pills and said 144 foreign suspects were arrested. He said courts issued 2,157 drug-related rulings, including 59 death sentences and 254 life terms. The ministry also reported that tribal warning shootings fell 30 percent and armed tribal disputes fell 71 percent during the period. Miri separately said Baghdad had recorded no major terrorist or serious crimes over the same 100 days. He said security forces flew 24 drone sorties along the border and conducted more than 100 operations that led to the arrest of smugglers, while exchanging information with Iran and Syria.

Iraq had not released September salary funding to any ministry by Monday, according to an informed source. The source attributed the delay to incomplete financing procedures, limited liquidity and lower revenues. August funding was also released near the end of the month, with some ministry employees receiving their pay only in early September. Finance Minister Faleh al-Sari estimated in July that monthly salary obligations totalled 7.8 trillion dinars, against a funding shortfall then put at roughly 3.3 trillion dinars. Finance Ministry data put public-sector salary and social-welfare spending at 44.627 trillion dinars in the first half of 2026, nearly 82 percent of federal expenditure.

Reports on 21 and 22 September attributed to Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi a phased weapons-control plan: factions would stop attacks for 90 days while receiving assurances against U.S. strikes, then hand over weapons by 30 June 2027. Under the reported plan, fighters would enter the PMF or other state forces individually, and organizations still armed under faction names after the deadline would be treated as outside the law. The timetable departs from security adviser Qasim al-Araji’s position last week that the committee had no fixed completion deadline. PMF military-media director Muhannad al-Aqabi instead said faction weapons would be reorganized under federal supervision rather than transferred to the government. Ashab al-Kahf, assessed as a Nujaba front, said regulation could come only after every foreign force left Iraq, including coalition, U.S. and Turkish forces. On iNEWS (KSS — affiliated), a speaker identified only as al-Khazali said understandings would require at least six months. Alaa al-Haidari (Asas parliamentary bloc head) told Al-Ahad TV (AAH — official) that weapons control could not be fixed by date. The positions now differ over whether factions surrender or retain supervised weapons, whether foreign forces leave first and whether a deadline can bind the process.

The Badr parliamentary bloc warned the Iraqi government and Civil Aviation Authority against carrying out reported U.S. instructions barring Iranian civilian aircraft from Iraqi airspace and airports. It said compliance would expose responsible officials to parliamentary and oversight accountability and asked both bodies for an urgent statement. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was reported threatening dollar-system exclusion for airports providing Iranian airlines with fuel, landing services or ticket sales from 23 September. Two Iraqi government sources said Iraq would enforce restrictions from dawn on 22 September. Al-Ittijah TV (KH — official) carried Iraq’s denial that bilateral flights had stopped and warned of economic losses if they did. Al-Ghadeer TV (Badr Organization — official) carried the warning and Al-Nujaba TV (Nujaba — official) carried it in Badr's words. Badr described the measure as an airspace and airport ban, while the reported Treasury warning named fuel, landing and ticket services.

Qaisar al-Jourani (AAH — Sadiqoun MP) said the bloc had collected more than 60 signatures to question the oil minister over the fuel crisis. Uday Awad (AAH — Sadiqoun bloc head) said questioning would proceed because the minister’s answers were unsatisfactory. Parliament meanwhile voted on 11 recommendations addressing the shortages. iNEWS carried calls to reconsider Cabinet Decision 429 of 2026 on fuel prices, restore subsidized supplies to farmers and set a timetable for petroleum-product self-sufficiency. The recommendations also sought detailed reporting on production, imports, consumption, costs, stocks and provincial allocations, along with tighter oversight from depots to filling stations. Watan TV (Badr Organization — affiliated) carried MP Mahdi Taqi al-Amirli’s allegation that the petrol crisis was fabricated to inflame the street. It attributed to Parliament Speaker Haibat al-Halbousi the criticism that an oil-producing country should not face a fuel crisis or invoke the Strait of Hormuz as an excuse. The recommendations have passed, but the signatures have not been submitted and no questioning session has been scheduled.

Separately in Anbar, Al-Ghadeer TV (Badr Organization — official) described a PMF security exercise. iNEWS then said PMF and army units conducted a joint operation east of Anbar toward the Baghdad boundary. Al-Ittijah TV and Al-Nujaba TV said weapons and war remnants were found.