At 12:46 on 29 July the Saraya Awliya al-Dam channel (KSS — front/facade) published a statement signed by "military spokesman of the Islamic Resistance, Saraya Awliya al-Dam, Abu Mahdi al-Jaafari": Iraq is not run "by the logic of commercial deals"; the government must review all recently concluded agreements with the United States and cancel the scheduled visit "to the Hejaz"; the group still awaits an official position matching the scale of the event; the Saudi ambassador must be expelled immediately and diplomatic and economic relations severed; and "if the government defaults on its duty, the zealous Iraqi people must demand the confinement of the government's weapons in the hands of the resistance." Al-Kornet al-Kata'ibi (KSS — affiliated) carried the identical text seven seconds earlier and Sabereen News (KH — affiliated) relayed it at 13:02. In the same hour, Al-Ittijah TV (KH — official) quoted Hoquq bloc deputy Miqdad al-Khafaji saying "there is no benefit in cancelling the prime minister's visit to Saudi Arabia" while "the street awaits a serious position commensurate with the scale of the aggression".
The factions are testing different levers on the same event — a front demanding the resistance hold the state's weapons, a Kataib Hezbollah deputy working the parliamentary route — so the government faces incompatible definitions of an adequate response from within the same camp.