US ex-official warns Iraq could drift into civil war if armed factions refuse to disarm

BAGHDAD, Iraq — David Des Roches, a former U.S. Department of Defense official and former NATO director of operations, described the Iraqi government's late-September deadline for armed factions to hand over their weapons as "a positive step," while warning the standoff could turn deadly. In remarks to Shafaq News, he said groups taking orders from Iran would resist the deadline and that the central question is whether the Iraqi state is prepared to fight Iran-backed militias on its own territory. Des Roches argued that Iraq is not a fully sovereign state and that Iran's presence inside the country remains thinly veiled. If the factions refuse to surrender their weapons, he said, Iraq will either remain a divided state or face civil war against Iranian proxies, with no third option available. He added that this dynamic alone would not be enough to lift restrictions on the banking channels Iran uses to circumvent U.S. and international sanctions. The former official also said Erbil would continue to follow its own trajectory, charting a separate path from the rest of Iraq. He did not name specific factions or provide details on how the disarmament deadline would be enforced.