Baghdad pushes US investment deals during Washington visit
Shafaq News- Washington
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's official visit to the United States marks the most significant such trip by an Iraqi government since 2003, Iraqi government spokesperson Haidar al-Aboudi said on Tuesday.
Speaking to Shafaq News, al-Aboudi said Baghdad views the visit as the start of a phase built on investment, energy, and economic development, and that this track “rather than the military and security cooperation that defined relations over the past two decades, is what will sustain ties between Baghdad and Washington.”
Al-Zaidi arrived in Washington on Monday at the head of a high-level delegation that includes ministers, officials, investors, and company executives, on an official visit scheduled to last seven days.
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According to al-Aboudi, the government intends to use current political momentum to open Iraqi strategic projects to major American firms, particularly in oil, energy, and infrastructure. Several large US companies have already responded to that approach, and some have entered understandings with the Iraqi side, he said, adding that the outcomes of those agreements will be announced during the visit.
On restricting weapons to state control, al-Aboudi said the government has treated the file as a founding priority, framing it not only as a security matter but as a precondition for attracting foreign investment.
The current government has moved from pledges to implementation on that file, unlike its predecessors, according to al-Aboudi, who linked progress on internal security directly to investor confidence, arguing that “establishing state authority reassures international companies and lays the groundwork for stronger economic relations, with the United States first among them.”
Read more: Al-Zaidi at the White House: A sustainable partnership or continued crisis management?
