How US-Iran escalation will test Iraq’s balancing act
- At the White House on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump was warm and effusive towards Iraq’s visiting prime minister, the 40-year-old Ali al-Zaidi, describing him as “young”, “handsome” and as someone he wanted to work with.
- Later in the day came the caveat, when US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned Iraq to disarm Iran-aligned armed groups in the country.
- As the war between the US and Iran intensifies again, analysts say al-Zaidi’s Washington meetings summed up how Iraq could find itself caught in a bind, balancing two critical relationships it cannot afford to j
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- At the White House on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump was warm and effusive towards Iraq’s visiting prime minister, the 40-year-old Ali al-Zaidi, describing him as “young”, “handsome” and as someone he wanted to work with.
- Later in the day came the caveat, when US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned Iraq to disarm Iran-aligned armed groups in the country.
- As the war between the US and Iran intensifies again, analysts say al-Zaidi’s Washington meetings summed up how Iraq could find itself caught in a bind, balancing two critical relationships it cannot afford to j
Sources: Al Jazeera