Faiq Zidan, president of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, and Steven Fagen, chargé d’affaires at the US Embassy in Baghdad, discussed the Iraqi government’s program to bring weapons under state control in the capital, Baghdad.
The talks focused on the support Iraq’s judiciary would provide to the government during the program’s implementation. The program aims to bring weapons under state control.
Coordination Framework prepares plan
Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council announced that a committee had been assigned within the Coordination Framework to conduct work on implementing the program. The committee is preparing a comprehensive plan as part of a process supported by the grouping, which includes Shiite political forces; the plan will be announced to the public once completed.
The meeting between Zidan and Fagen stressed that the process should help Iraq maintain positive relations with the international community and implement constitutional and legal provisions.
Weapons under state control on the agenda
The Coordination Framework announced on June 1 that it supported bringing weapons under state control. Nouri al-Maliki, head of the State of Law Coalition, announced on August 18 that a committee had been formed to prepare the mechanisms needed to implement the process in coordination with the government.
The Zidan-Fagen meeting took place at a time when political and government efforts to bring weapons under state control in Iraq had intensified in recent months.
Fagen’s meetings in Baghdad
Several days before meeting Zidan, Fagen also met with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein. That meeting addressed the government’s steps to bring weapons under state control, along with political and security issues.
Fagen began serving as chargé d’affaires at the US Embassy in Iraq at the beginning of September, replacing Joshua Harris.
