In the same 15:50 correspondents' round-up on 29 July, Al-Ahad TV (Asaib Ahl al-Haq — official) reported that visitor numbers in Karbala for the Arbaeen pilgrimage were rising "despite the Saudi-American aggression", that pilgrims "praised the role of the Popular Mobilization and its sacrifices in defence of Iraq and its holy sites", and that pilgrims "demand the government respond appropriately to the Saudi-American aggression". The joint statement carried the same afternoon on Asaib Ahl al-Haq's armed group channel makes the parallel institutional demand, giving government bodies until 23 Safar "to see what they will do" and arguing that a state taking the resistance's weapons would have to prove it could deter aggressors.
Framing the disarmament question as a test the government must pass, with the Arbaeen crowd cited as the constituency demanding it, shifts the burden of the disarmament debate from the armed factions onto the cabinet.