Today (Saturday), thousands of Iraqis participated in the funeral ceremony for the body of former MP Ahmed Al-Alwani, who was assassinated in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, after his arrival on the fifth of this month.
Thousands of mourners gathered near the host of the Albu Alwan clan, where dozens of marquees were erected in Anbar Governorate to receive participants in the funeral of Alwani’s body, which arrived this morning by private plane to Baghdad International Airport coming from Beirut, in the presence of representatives, political and military figures, and tribal sheikhs from all over the country.
Al-Alwani had a large public funeral, starting from the Grand Mosque of Ramadi, after performing prayers in Anbar Governorate. Mourners roamed the streets of the city carrying Iraqi flags and pictures of the deceased, under tight security measures and a heavy deployment of security forces. He was then buried to his final resting place in the family cemetery.
The Iraqi ambassador to Lebanon, Muhammad Redha Al-Husseini, announced that the body of MP Al-Alwani had left Beirut airport this morning, heading to Baghdad on a private plane.
The Iraqi News Agency (INA) quoted Al-Husseini as saying: “The body left Beirut airport this morning, accompanied by a number of his family members.” He added, "The embassy has completed all Lebanese judicial and security procedures, as well as consular procedures at the embassy."
During the past two weeks, a conflict has raged between Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and the Hezbollah Brigades, which has reached the point of exchanging public accusations, coinciding with serious challenges facing the government in its efforts to complete the arms control of pro-Iranian groups.
The crisis escalated after intelligence reports were leaked accusing the Phalange of smuggling thousands of barrels of oil extracted from the Jurf al-Sakhar area in southern Baghdad, which it has controlled for about a decade and has not allowed successive governments to enter.
On Friday, the government sent a committee headed by the Popular Mobilization Forces to investigate the smuggling accusations. The head of the Security Media Commission, Lieutenant General Saad Maan, said that “no political parties or factions participate in the investigation committee into the smuggling of petroleum derivatives in Jurf al-Sakhar.”
According to an official source in the “coordination framework” who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat, sending a government committee to investigate the issue of the “brigades” selling oil and its derivatives in Jurf al-Sakhar is “the first field government action within the prohibited zone administered by the brigades.”
The "Kata'ib" was established after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 by Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, who was assassinated by the United States in early 2020, when he was accompanied by the commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Qassem Soleimani, near Baghdad International Airport.
The ruling coalition official says, “Understanding the brigades’ capabilities and influence must start from knowing the nature of their connection with the Iranian sponsor.” He adds, “The inability of successive governments to confront this faction and enter Jurf al-Sakhar is mostly due to its power derived from its close relations with Iran, which serves as the spearhead of the factions loyal to Wilayat al-Faqih.”
Even in the absence of accurate statistics and information about the number of its members and the nature of the weapons it possesses, the political official asserts that “it is difficult to underestimate its military capacity, as it possesses a significant arsenal of missiles and drones,” without providing information regarding the type and size of that arsenal.
Despite talk about Iranian support for the Phalange, the source says that this was limited to the first stages of the faction’s establishment, as the matter has changed over the past few years and the Phalange now runs a single network of financial interests, of which investing in oil or stealing it may be one of its forms.”
The brigades receive significant amounts of money from the Popular Mobilization Forces through their leadership of three brigades within it.
Regarding the boundaries of the current confrontation between the government of Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and the Phalange, the official confirms that “matters are extremely dangerous and raise a lot of concern within the coordination framework, and there are persistent efforts led by Shiite leaders to avoid a possible confrontation between the two sides.”
Political affairs researcher Aqeel Abbas believes that “Al-Zaidi has come a long way in dealing with the factions’ weapons that no Iraqi prime minister has ever done before him,” noting that “he not only went to a public confrontation with one of the most powerful armed factions, but also revealed corruption files in a very sensitive area geographically and politically, which is Jurf al-Sakhar.”
Abbas said in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat that “the decision to confront has already been taken, but the form of this confrontation may differ from one stage to another. It appears that the role of the coordination framework and its ability to manage this file is clearly declining. His traditional role as a mediator between the armed factions and the prime minister is no longer as effective as it was before.”
Abbas considered what happened recently between the government and the Phalange "a new and important development in view of breaking a stereotype that has dominated Iraqi political events for years, including that any prime minister who confronts the factions will be overthrown."
Al-Zaidi’s recent movements, according to Abbas, are based on “two basic factors: the first relates to his obtaining American support at a moment of extreme weakness and confusion in Iran, and the second relates to the presence of support from the judiciary, and these two factors made the difference in this confrontation.”
But he does not rule out the possibility of Al-Zaidi's decline. He said, “In light of the current data, it appears that the Prime Minister is in a stronger position than the Hezbollah Brigades.” This, in itself, is a striking paradox in the Iraqi scene, but retreat will be difficult for it, and the confrontation will most likely end in a political deal between the two parties to avoid the loss of one of them.
However, Iyad Al-Anbar, professor of political science at the University of Baghdad, shows a degree of skepticism regarding the issue of disarming the factions and the confrontation with the brigades. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that “the government’s strategy to confine arms to the state is still unclear, and therefore it resorts to temporary and circumstantial tactics that change according to the nature of the positions and reactions.”
He adds: “There does not appear to be a clear-cut plan, or a strategy that includes specific stages, such as Plan A or B, as much as we are witnessing immediate actions met with reactions from the factions, often ending with calm and containing the escalation.”
Al-Anbar believes that all of this “applies to the latest means of pressure that the government has resorted to, which is economic pressure.”
The researcher points out that the recent confrontation with the Phalange and the issue of disarming the factions “has turned into a subject for political debates and a show of force rather than a serious discussion about a real problem,” noting that “the fragility of the state is necessarily reflected in the security system and the multiplicity of centers of influence and control.” In light of the existence of political feudal lords, why does not those who own weapons seek to become a security feudal lord in turn? “I think this point provides a clear answer to a fundamental aspect of the problem.”
