Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi met with PMF leaders Falih Al-Fayyadh, Hadi Al-Ameri, and Abdul Aziz Al-Mohammadawi to defuse mounting confrontations over state-mandated disarmament

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Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi dismissed nine security and administrative officials

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An Iraqi security committee accompanied by Kataib Hezbollah members entered Jurf al-Nasr to inspect suspected oil pipeline infrastructure

Atlantic Council fellow Akeel Abbas stated that Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi used the Jurf al-Nasr smuggling crackdown to cut financial lifelines and force militia disarmament

Military spokesperson Sabah al-Numan said the nine officials dismissed by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi included local security and intelligence officers, an Interior Ministry commander, and the Oil Pipelines Company director

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi referred all individuals accused of involvement in the Jurf al-Nasr oil smuggling scheme to the Iraqi judiciary on November 14, 2026

Kataib Hezbollah issued threats and corruption accusations against Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi after the premier vowed to confront armed groups refusing unconditional state disarmament

The United States government accused Iraqi armed groups of involvement in oil smuggling

While some Iraqi armed factions agreed to surrender their weapons to the state, Kataib Hezbollah and other powerful groups refused to disarm

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi formed an investigating committee under the Popular Mobilization Forces on November 12, 2026, to inspect suspected fuel smuggling in Jurf al-Nasr

The Iraqi government extended the official deadline for non-state armed factions to surrender their weapons to the state until June 30, 2027

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that effective 21st-century arms control must include China due to the size and growth of Beijing's nuclear arsenal

The New START nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia expired in February 2026 after President Donald Trump rejected a Russian proposal for a one-year extension

U.S. President Donald Trump plans to discuss global nuclear weapons reduction during the trilateral summit in Shenzhen, China with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin

Beijing has historically resisted joining nuclear arms control talks with Washington and Moscow, arguing that the United States and Russia hold far larger nuclear arsenals

China maintains an estimated stockpile of over 600 nuclear warheads, which U.S. officials project could expand to 1,000 warheads by 2030

Senior U.S. officials stated that the administration does not expect the first trilateral summit in Shenzhen, China to yield a nuclear arms control agreement, describing it as an initial conversation

The United States military reportedly removed its nuclear weapons from RAF Lakenheath in 2008

Russia and the United States each possess estimated inventories of more than 5,000 nuclear warheads

The expiration of the New START treaty in February 2026 removed caps on the nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia for the first time in over a half-century

China's foreign ministry stated in October 2026 that joining trilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations with the U.S. and Russia is neither fair, reasonable, nor realistic due to mismatched nuclear arsenals