About a week after visiting Washington, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi arrived in Iran on Thursday for what will be his first official visit to the country since taking office. According to Arab media reports, al-Zaidi will meet with senior Iranian officials to discuss several issues—including the escalation with the United States.
1+Relations between Iran and Iraq have been in a minor crisis recently following Trump’s request that al-Zaidi not include pro-Iranian elements in his government. Al-Zaidi, a Shiite Muslim, tried to fulfill Trump’s request but also faced internal and external pressure that made his job difficult. In the end, al-Zaidi formed a government with pro-Iranian elements but managed to keep the terror organization Kata’ib Hezbollah—one of the largest in the country—out of the government.
Another issue that will come up in the talks is the monopoly on weapons that the Iraqi government is seeking to achieve. Over the past 20 years, Iraq has been flooded with terror organizations loyal to Iran that have become one of the strongest forces in the country and did whatever Tehran asked. Now, al-Zaidi is seeking to limit their power and return control over weapons to the state—a move that will be far from simple for him to implement.
1+Iran, of course, opposes the move. After losing its grip on Syria and taking serious blows in Yemen and Lebanon, the regime doesn’t want to lose more of its proxies. Therefore, al-Zaidi faces a difficult task—on one side stands U.S. President Donald Trump, and on the other the Iranians with dozens of terror organizations under their control throughout Iraq.
According to Arab media, al-Zaidi’s short-term goal from this visit is clear: to advance the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Iraq also exports its oil through the strait, and according to reports, its closure in recent weeks has cost the country no less than $50 billion. As threats between the sides intensify and tensions in Israel also rise heading into the weekend, it appears al-Zaidi’s mission to reopen the strait will not succeed.