While the Iraqis' Western allies fighting the Islamic State (IS) are demanding that the Iraqi government dissolve the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), the PMU factions are expanding their influence in the Iraqi state.
In his meeting with Iraqi Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani on Dec. 2, French President Emmanuel Macron called on the Iraqi government to dismantle all militias, including the PMU. Macron said, “It is essential that there is gradual demilitarization, in particular of the PMU that established itself in the last few years in Iraq, and that all militias be gradually dismantled.”