ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has kicked off his landmark meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington DC, Rudaw's correspondent at the White House relayed, with talks between the two leaders expected to center on efforts to elevate ties between Baghdad and Washington to partnership level.
The delegations
“The Iraqi delegation meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office includes Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, Finance Minister Faleh al-Sari, Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair, Trade Minister Mustafa Nizar Jumaa, and Ambassadors Nizar al-Khairallah and Krikor Der-Hagopian,” Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda detailed.
From the US, President Trump “is accompanied by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Special Envoy for Iraq and Syria Tom Barrack,” Kurda noted.
The agenda
Zaidi’s trip to the US comes as Baghdad is seeking to restructure its relationship with Washington beyond the security-focused framework that has defined bilateral relations over the past two decades.
It also comes ahead of the conclusion of the mission of the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State (ISIS) and the withdrawal of its forces by the end of September.
With the Coalition's mandate ending, Iraq is keen on implementing the Strategic Framework Agreement - a pact signed between the two sides in 2008 to establish a long-term, comprehensive partnership.
The Framework Agreement is designed to guide diplomacy, defense, economics, energy, education, law enforcement, and environmental health.
The lead-up
Ahead of his trip to Washington, Iraqi Prime Minister Zaidi has, in recent months, ramped up efforts to bring the proliferation of arms in the hands of armed groups - including those aligned with Tehran - under state control.
In June, Zaidi ordered the formation of a committee to oversee the disengagement of political parties and armed factions from the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) - an umbrella organization that was established in 2014 during the ISIS blitz, which saw the extremist group seize control of large parts of Iraq's north and west.
Created in response to a religious edict, or fatwa, issued by Iraq's highest Shiite authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the PMF initially comprised some 70 predominantly Shiite armed groups with approximately 250,000 members.
However, while it is a state-funded institution, the PMF includes factions widely believed to overlap with the Iran-led ‘Axis of Resistance,’ which have, since the outbreak of the Iran war in late February, carried out attacks against alleged US targets in the region in support of Tehran - often operating through shadow groups under the banner of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI).
Moreover, Zaidi in late June launched a wide-scale anti-corruption crackdown under the title Operation Dawn, carried out in coordination with Iraq's Federal Commission of Integrity.
To date, the operation has resulted in the arrest of dozens of senior Iraqi politicians, lawmakers and government employees, in addition to the recovery of hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen assets and state properties illegally transferred into private ownership.
The hurdles
Ahead of Zaidi's milestone visit to Washington - described as the most significant engagement by a senior Iraqi official with the US in years - the IRI expressed its "principled rejection" of the trip, citing continued US-Israeli military operations against "innocent people in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen and Palestine."
In a statement released Sunday, the IRI said "the continued presence of US forces on Iraqi soil represents an occupation," adding that "one of the government's priorities must be to work, by various means, to bring it to an end according to the announced schedule" by the end of September.
Notably, several groups operating under the umbrella organization have in recent weeks resisted Zaidi's push to bring their arms under state control, citing the US presence as justification.
The IRI on Sunday also took a jab at plans to use the Strategic Framework Agreement as a launchpad for elevating Iraqi-US ties to partnership, suggesting that any agreement the incumbent government intends to rely on "must be submitted to the Iraqi parliament for ratification."
It further voiced its opposition to "trade exchange" with "any country that harbors hostility toward our resisting people.” The IRI added, "We reject any economic monopoly or dominance over Iraq's resources, and we warn against replacing military occupation with an economic occupation that is far more dangerous,” the group said, urging the "liberation of the Iraqi economy from American hegemony."
Finally, the umbrella group opposed any normalization of ties with Israel, dubbing it an act of "treason."
The conditions
Iraq's ruling Shiite Coordination Framework, which backed Zaidi's premiership in May, has in recent days expressed support for the premier's Washington trip; however, it conditioned that support on "tangible outcomes" that serve Iraq's interests.
"Iraq is on the verge of a significant development regarding the revitalization of American-Iraqi relations," said Hossam al-Rubaie, spokesperson for the Khadamat (Services) Alliance - a key component of the Coordination Framework - in a Monday interview with Rudaw.
He added that "all [political] groups support" Zaidi's effort to reshape ties with Washington, but that their support "will be conditioned on the results this visit will achieve for Iraq's interests."
Unlike the IRI, the Coordination Framework politician explained that the bloc supports upholding the Strategic Framework Agreement as a cornerstone for elevating ties; however, he stressed the need to implement the agreement's provisions while censuring Washington for refraining from "implementing many of its clauses."
This is a developing story...
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