ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is set to travel to Iran on an official visit Thursday, a senior Baghdad government official confirmed, adding that talks with senior Iranian officials will focus on regional tensions and gas shortages. The visit comes days after Zaidi returned from a landmark trip to the United States.
"Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi will visit Iran tomorrow at the official invitation of Iranian President [Masoud Pezeshkian], and he will be accompanied by a high-level ministerial delegation," Haider al-Aboudi, the government spokesperson, told reporters at a press conference in Baghdad.
The visit will see "dialogues and understandings" between the two countries, Aboudi said, adding that “the gas file will also be on the table for bilateral discussions” in a manner that "serves Iraq's interests."
The US and Israel launched a coordinated military campaign against Iran in late February, carrying out thousands of strikes across the country. Tehran responded with thousands of drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting US assets in the region - particularly in Gulf Arab states - while also striking Israel in retaliation.
In mid-June, Iran and the US signed the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, halting military operations on all fronts and reopening the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping. Both sides also committed to holding talks toward a comprehensive settlement within 60 days, with room to extend by mutual consent.
However, those talks appear to be unraveling as the two sides have been locked in continuous strikes and counterstrikes since July 8, including in Hormuz, making a near-term return to the negotiating table unlikely.
In light of the conflict, Iranian gas deliveries to Iraq plunged from the contracted volume of around 50 million cubic meters per day to about 20 million, Baghdad's electricity ministry confirmed in mid-March.
The plunge was chiefly linked to US-Israeli strikes on the processing facilities of Iran's South Pars field, about 100 kilometers off the country's southern coast, which knocked out nearly a third of Iran's gas production capacity at times.
With imported gas normally fueling up to 40 percent of Iraq's power grid, the shortfall has forced rolling blackouts, leaving major cities with as little as four to six hours of public electricity per day.
Notably, Zaidi's trip to Tehran comes shortly after he returned to Iraq on Sunday from a five-day visit to the US, where he met with President Donald Trump, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and several other senior officials.
Aboudi said Wednesday that the Zaidi-led government is pursuing diplomatic solutions and "strategic management" of its foreign policy, adding that "Iraq has recovered and has not been a part of the axes of [the regional] conflict." Baghdad is prioritizing economic interests and international obligations through a policy of non-interference, he said.
