BAGHDAD (Dispatches) -- Armed factions 
comprising the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) have renewed their demand that the Kurdistan autonomous region’s Peshmerga forces be included in a plan to bring weapons under state control through a new law, Asharq Al-Awsat reported.
Sources speaking with the Saudi newspaper said the resistance factions had demanded a new law requiring everyone, including the Peshmerga, to disarm.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is under pressure from Washington to disarm anti-terror resistance factions.
Disarmament of the resistance factions is scheduled to begin following the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country on September 30.
Several faction officials told figures in Zaidi’s Coordination Framework – the largest and most influential Shia political alliance in Iraq – that restrictions on weapons should apply to all parties, the sources said.
They added that the proposal should control, regulate, and manage weapons nationwide under a unified legal framework to prevent selective measures against one party but not another.
The sources also said a committee would be formed in the next phase to draft a law governing the control, regulation, and management of weapons.
The draft would undergo legal review before being referred to parliament for a vote, with political forces participating in the process.
In August, the IRI reiterated its conditions for cooperating with the government on arms regulation. It demanded the “complete and genuine withdrawal” of U.S. forces from Iraqi territory and airspace – with no future return.
The group also called for what it termed the liberation of Iraqi political and economic decision-making from Washington.
Since the illegal U.S. invasion in 2003, Washington has maintained control of Iraq’s oil revenues, which are deposited into an account at the New York Federal Reserve Bank before disbursement to Baghdad.
In the August statement, the resistance also called for the disbanding of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, calling them the “most heavily armed militia posing a threat to Iraq’s unity,” and accusing them of ties to the U.S. and Israel.
The IRI coalesced in 2014 to resist the Daesh invasion of the country.
Daesh conquered large swathes of north and west Iraq with covert support from both the Peshmerga and the U.S. military, which viewed the Daesh invasion as a stepping stone to dividing Iraq and creating an independent Kurdish state.
Daesh terrorists received weapons provided by the U.S. military and Peshmerga, helping them to conquer the major cities of Falluja, Ramadi, and Mosul.
Under the direction of Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, the Peshmerga coordinated with Daesh to perpetrate the genocide of the Yezidi religious minority in the Sinjar district in northwest Iraq.