Washington: Every Iraqi prime minister since the fall of Saddam Hussein has inherited the same impossible job: convince Washington that Iraq is not slipping entirely into Iran’s orbit while convincing Tehran that it is not becoming an American outpost. Iraq’s new prime minister now faces that challenge under the most trying of circumstances. The United States and Iran are at war, with Iraq at the heart of this conflict.
According to Iraqi News Agency, during his recent visit to Washington, D.C., where he met with President Trump in the Oval Office, al-Zaidi summed up his vision for the relationship with the United States in a single phrase: fewer American troops; more American business. “Military presence does not create ties between societies,” he told me in a rare interview, conducted under heavy security in downtown Washington. “Economic engagement does.”
Al-Zaidi revealed that Trump had been inclined to deliver a severe blow to Iran after days of tit-for-tat strikes, but said he advised the president against a military response, arguing that negotiations remained the better option. “You can always resort to force later, but negotiation is what matters,” he said.
Al-Zaidi believes Iraq should be “a meeting point, not a place for hostility” between the United States and Iran, stressing that his country does not want to become a battleground for other people’s conflicts. With roughly 2,000 American troops still deployed in Iraq and armed factions continuing to operate, al-Zaidi stressed that restoring the authority of the state can only be achieved by bringing all weapons under its control. “There is no option but to hand over the weapons,” he said.
He said he was unwilling to accept Iraq becoming a failed state, pointing to steps his government has begun taking to combat corruption and assert state authority, while acknowledging that previous governments had made similar promises. At 41, al-Zaidi is the youngest prime minister in modern Iraqi history. A businessman who entered politics after a career in investment and energy, he is a newcomer to politics who speaks more like a chief executive than a conventional politician.
Asked what Iraq had learned from the Iran-Iraq War, he offered a stark answer: “Even the winner loses.” Al-Zaidi argues that economic opportunity is the real path to stability, saying that citizens who see a better future will be less likely to turn to warfare or sectarianism.
He is betting on transforming the relationship with Washington from a security-based partnership into a long-term economic one. Iraq and the United States, he said, are discussing an investment partnership that would span 30 years, with investment serving as the foundation for a more durable relationship between the two countries. He also noted that the Iraqi economy had suffered significant losses as a result of the latest war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, but urged investors to view Iraq as a promising opportunity rather than merely a theater of conflict.
Al-Zaidi became prime minister as a consensus candidate after months of political deadlock, and that the real challenge facing him is to translate political consensus into effective authority by asserting state sovereignty over all armed formations. The coming months will show whether al-Zaidi’s vision can survive contact with the reality that has shaped Iraq for decades: Iraq rarely gets to choose the wars that shape its future.