In Syria, the regime of President Bashar al-Assad collapsed. In Lebanon, Hezbollah was forced to lay down its arms under a United States-brokered ceasefire and now faces pressure to disarm. In Yemen, the Houthis were forced to stop disrupting maritime traffic through the Red Sea after massive bombardment of infrastructure and civilian areas by US forces. On Thursday, an Israeli attack killed their prime minister, Ahmed al-Rahawi, along with several other ministers. Iran's once-formidable deterrence has spectacularly shrunk.
The law aims to regulate Iraq's paramilitaries, the so-called Popular Mobilization forces, or PMF. Should it pass, its critics predict dire consequences. It would make "armed terrorist groups undermining Iraq's sovereignty," part of the official Iraqi military, the US State Department has warned. Supporters of the bill have a very different opinion, arguing that it could be a way of assimilating armed groups back into state institutions.