On the morning of 22 August the Iraqi president said the constitution and the religious authority require weapons to be held by the state, that the armed factions fought Islamic State and should now hand over their weapons and integrate with the security forces through dialogue and an Iraqi national solution, that Iraq will not accept its territory being used to attack any state, and that the international coalition is no longer needed and withdraws on 30 September. Within 45 minutes the remarks were carried by AAH's Al-Ahad TV, KSS's Al-Kornet al-Kata'ibi, KH's Sabereen News and Unit 10,000, and Badr's Watan TV. The rung holds on the militia channels' own posts, which agree on the wording; no faction statement responding to the demand appears in the collected window.
- Al-Ahad TVAAH — official22 Aug, 11:00
“President of the Republic: the constitution requires weapons to be confined to the state, and the religious authority calls for that as well.”
رئيس الجمهورية: الدستور يلزم حصر السلاح بيد الدولة والمرجعية الدينية تدعو لذلك أيضا
- Al-Kornet al-Kata'ibiKSS — affiliated22 Aug, 11:08
“There must be dialogue and understanding with the armed factions to confine weapons to the state through an Iraqi national solution.”
يجب الحوار والتفاهم مع الفصائل المسلحة لحصر السلاح بيد الدولة بحل عراقي وطني
- Watan TVBadr Organization — affiliated22 Aug, 11:37
“The armed factions fought Islamic State and shed their blood, and we ask them to hand over weapons and integrate with the security forces … we do not accept the use of Iraqi territory to attack any state … the international coalition came at an Iraqi request … and now we do not need it, and it withdraws on 30 September.”
الفصائل المسلحة حاربت داعش وبذلت دماءها ونحن نطلب منها تسليم السلاح والاندماج مع القوات الأمنية … لا نقبل باستخدام الأراضي العراقية للاعتداء على أي دولة … التحالف الدولي جاء بطلب عراقي … والآن غير محتاجين إليه وانسحابه في 30 أيلول المقبل
- Al-Ahad TVAAH — official22 Aug, 11:45
“The executions issue is a national, constitutional, legal Iraqi file and has nothing to do with any other matter.”
قضية الإعدامات ملف وطني دستوري قانوني عراقي ولا علاقة له بأي أمر آخر
Handover of weapons and integration into the security forces is the core question of militia autonomy, and the networks are choosing which sentence of the demand their audience sees rather than answering it.