Ayatollah Sayyed Yassin Mousavi, the Friday prayer imam of Baghdad and a prominent professor at the Najaf Ashraf Seminary, referred to the controversies of recent weeks surrounding the issue of “the state’s monopoly on weapons,” saying that these discussions have been accompanied by great turmoil and confusion in the political and media arenas. He warned against attempts to define the concept of “state weapons” based on the US perspective or political agendas aimed at weakening Iraq.
Publish dateSunday 16 August 2026 - 08:51
Story Code : 363192
Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) International Service: Ayatollah Mousavi emphasized in his Friday prayer sermons in Baghdad that opposing “unregulated weapons outside the control of the state” is a definite and consistent issue, and religious authorities have repeatedly emphasized the need for weapons to be at the service of the state; but the main issue is the definition of legitimate weapons, not names and titles.
He added that the Supreme Authority has taken a clear position in calling for the regulation and control of weapons, and the experiences of Iraq have also proven the dangers of weapons outside the framework of the law; however, some parties are trying to limit the concept of “state weapons” only to the army, police, and a number of official institutions.
The Baghdad Friday prayer leader emphasized: “The issue is not the name and title, but the reality and function of weapons in protecting the state and the country.”
Referring to the events of the fall of Mosul in 2014, Ayatollah Mousavi considered this event an example that shows that simply having the title of a military institution is not enough to guarantee the protection of the country.
He said that four military divisions collapsed within a few hours and provided advanced weapons and large amounts of their property to the ISIS terrorist group; in contrast, the volunteers who came to the field following the Authority’s fatwa on Jihad al-Kifai relied on the support of the Iraqi people for food and support due to the lack of military facilities at that time.
Ayatollah Mousavi added: “It was the Husseini convoys that took on the responsibility of providing food for hundreds of thousands of volunteers, while the barracks were facing a lack of weapons and training.”
He emphasized that the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) are part of the Iraqi government’s weaponry, as they entered the field in response to the fatwa of the religious authority and to defend Iraq. He added that legitimacy should be measured based on real dependence on the government and defending the country, not just on titles and administrative structures.
The Baghdad Friday prayer leader said: “PMF is the government’s weapon, and the resistance’s weapon is also the same weapon that played a role in the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, and this is a fact that the Americans themselves have admitted.”
He considered the description of the resistance’s weapon as “the weapon of the militias” an attempt to distort its role, emphasizing that this weapon is “the weapon of resistance and liberation” and must be respected because it has defended the territory and sovereignty of Iraq.
Ayatollah Mousavi further called on the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces to consider diverse sources of weapons to strengthen the country’s army and remove the army from the US arms monopoly.
He said: “If you want to reform the military institution, you must procure aircraft and heavy weapons from other countries and rebuild the capabilities of the army; in a way that guarantees Iraq’s independence of decision-making.”
The Baghdad Friday prayer leader also strongly criticized US President Donald Trump and US envoy Tom Barak, and considered setting a deadline for Iraq regarding the weapons of resistance groups as unacceptable interference in the country’s internal affairs.
He emphasized that no foreign power has the right to interfere in Iraq’s sovereign decisions and criticized Washington’s efforts to impose its point of view on the Iraqi government.
Ayatollah Mousavi further said that there are other weapons that are beyond the government’s control and that they should also be discussed. In this regard, he referred to the Peshmerga forces and some organizations affiliated with foreign parties and called for uniform standards to be applied to all armed organizations.
He also called for an end to all forms of foreign military presence in Iraq, whether American or Turkish forces, and emphasized that protecting Iraq’s sovereignty requires having strong and independent Iraqi forces, and that the country’s future must be built by the Iraqi people and based on their will, not on foreign dictates.
Ayatollah Seyyed Yassin Mousavi concluded his speech by saying that if America does not accept the Islamic Republic of Iran’s conditions, it will be forced to withdraw from the region. He added that Iran has entered the stage of “determining military tasks” and that Iranian forces have the ability to expel American forces from the region.
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