She simply jealous of Iris who has all the things she doesnt. She feels that with her looks, she should be given a better life and as such worked hard to get there and also wanted to see Iris downfall. As for the disband of army, probably because the country is currently not at war (Though no peace was ever signed with Towair) so she thinks the army as unnecessary. Since her goal is to one day rule over the country, she needs all the powerful people on her side and the love of the people (mostly those in the capital) so some publicity stunt like this helps. Though her plan somewhat backfired when the pope is removed from power thus removing Van as the candidate for the next pope, she coldly ignores Van afterwards since he is of no use to her already.
Yes, I know what you mean. But by that point in the novel, nothing disproved that there's a conspiracy behind Yuri. I read the novel little bit farther that that scene(the van one)(a dozen or two chapters I think). And there still wasn't any confirmation from either side(whether Yuri's a honeypot trap and a spy or not) although there were hints. So, we really can't say.
Also, I personally didn't think that her hating iris proved or disproved anything about her status? Cause she could've easily been manipulated by towair or been someone of towair descent that illegally immigrated and
ended up in the slums in a bad condition
and got connected to towair when they needed an insider or been a plant from the very beginning or something else of the sort.
She seems the sort that'd have hated iris regardless of whether her time in the slums was planned or not.
