Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi issued a decree organizing the work of the so-called popular mobilization and its military authority and required it to integrate into the regular armed forces.
The decree ordered the merging of paramilitary units into the army and required popular mobilization factions to choose between political or military action. The groups also have a deadline of July 31 to comply with the new regulations.
Abdul Mahdi ordered that the work of the popular mobilization forces be an integral part of the armed forces and be under the command of the general commander in accordance with the law passed by the House of Representatives.
The decree stated that all the names of the popular mobilization factions in the battles against the organization of the state will be abandoned completely and the replacement of military labels known to them.
He added that factions that do not join the armed forces can become political organizations, subject to the law of parties, provided that they bear arms only on official leave.
The decree stressed the need to identify camps to gather the popular mobilization forces like the rest of the armed forces, and subject to what is known as military battle system according to the contexts of the armed forces.
He also ordered Abdul Mahdi to close all the headquarters of the popular mobilization factions in cities and outside, including economic offices or checkpoints outside the new framework.
Those factions - which helped Iraq and the US-led coalition forces defeat the Islamic state organization - have significant influence in Iraqi politics.
The leader of the Sadrist movement Moqtada al-Sadr announced the disbandment of his armed faction directly in preparation for his attachment to the security establishment and on the order Diwani issued by Abdul Mahdi.
Al-Jazeera's director in Baghdad, Waleed Ibrahim, said the Diwaniya order is not very different from the law passed two years ago, but what is important, according to observers, is the timing of its release, which comes after the recent security incidents in Baghdad. And before that attack on military bases with US troops.
He explained that the government wants to tell the popular mobilization factions, either to be part of the security system or to be outside, and in this case the state will not bear any repercussions may occur.
The Director of the Office of the island that the question is important now is whether the factions will accept this, especially as some of them explicitly declare its attachment to the mandate of the Faqih in Iran and it will not be within the reference of the Iraqi government?