A revised Popular Mobilisation Forces bill returns to a cabinet that is still nine ministers short

The National ran an analysis on 23 August 2026 headlined “Iraq PMF law risks entrenching Iran-backed militias as parallel force,” and Shafaq News reported on or around 13 August that new legislation targets overdue PMF benefits and integration — the closest thing to a primary-adjacent account of what the revised text does. Kurdistan24 has published a story on parliament beginning a first reading of the bill, but The Files could not pin its date, and the outlet is KDP-aligned, which is material on this subject. A widely circulated 24 August item claiming the government had formally submitted a revised bill traces to a dinar-speculation blog; we are not citing it and we cannot confirm a submission. What is documented is the 2025 round: Shafaq reported parliament receiving a final draft last August, the Washington Institute — an advocacy institution — argued on 4 August 2025 for a severe US response if it passed, and the bill did not pass.

The arithmetic that gives the bill its context is firmer. Al Jazeera reported the president naming Ali al-Zaidi, the Shia bloc’s candidate, as prime minister-designate on 27 April 2026, and parliament approving his government on 14 May. FDD’s Long War Journal recorded the next day that the cabinet was seated with only 14 of 23 ministers; Amwaj.media described the confirmation session as stormy. Alhurra reported on 16 June that Kurdish parties were mediating a stalled completion. On 11 August al-Zaidi was reported saying the line-up was close to complete — a claim reaching us via the Egyptian outlet Youm7 rather than a primary prime ministerial statement, and thin on that basis. Three and a half months after the confidence vote, nine ministries are still unaccounted for in the public record.

Assessment: Strip out the framing and this is a test of a veto. In 2025 American pressure was sufficient to shelve the bill. A government seated in 2026 with a reported US signal of approval, re-tabling a revised version, is measuring whether that leverage survived the drawdown. So watch Washington: an on-the-record objection means the old arrangement holds, and silence would be the larger story. Note also what the revised text reportedly does — pensions, benefits, integration. Legitimation by payroll is harder to oppose than legitimation by uniform, and cheaper for Baghdad than filling nine ministries.