Visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi to Washington and Delusional Sovereignty!

(Translated)

Al-Rayah Newspaper - Issue 609 - 22/07/2026

By: Ustadh Ahmed Al-Taie – Wilayah Iraq

In 2003, America invaded and occupied Iraq under the pretext of possessing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction that were not found later. Then the Coalition Provisional Authority, led by America and Britain, took over the administration of Iraq until the imagined sovereignty was transferred to an interim Iraqi government in June 2004. It formed the regime and drafted the constitution. Since then, Iraq entered a dark tunnel and witnessed political and security instability, along with sectarian violence that devastated everything in its path, and the issue of the U.S. presence remained a cheap political commodity, exploited by politicians, political factions, and those pursuing their own interests.

To this day, the deception and numbing of the Ummah continues with humiliating actions and decisions that appear to be sovereign for the benefit of the land and to save it from this dark tunnel! Thus came the visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi to Washington, a visit that was not decided by Iraq, but instead came at the invitation of US President Trump, to conclude strategic agreements.

Anyone who examines the terms of these agreements, the method of reception, and the embarrassing and provocative questions fully realizes that this meeting is not a meeting of equals, nor of an independent with his counterpart, but instead a meeting of a servile subservient to his master, and a slave waiting for orders and dictates to preserve his master’s interests. How could it not? Al-Zaidi came after support from Trump in his candidacy for the position. Trump said in a statement to reporters at the White House that he was interested in Al-Zaidi winning the presidency of the Iraqi government, explaining that his competitor was adopting positions that he described as bad toward Washington. Al-Zaidi publicly stated, in order to restore his reputation and since taking office, his commitment to combating corruption, and his government launched raid campaigns, and arrested dozens of current and former representatives and accused government officials. With corruption, it confiscated huge sums of money, through which he succeeded in gaining broad popular support.

This visit came at a time when the region is going through a turbulent situation and a stage in which the balance of power is being redrawn, with America’s awareness of the importance of Iraq, and that its stability and failure to escape from under its hegemony is a crucial issue for America, any negligence or shortcoming in this issue leads to turmoil that may reflect on the region as a whole.

This visit addressed three important and independent tracks: weapons, security, and economy.

As for weapons, America has linked the future of cooperation with Iraq to achieving tangible results in the issue of disarming the factions supported by Iran. America does not view the armed factions as an internal Iraqi issue, but rather considers them part of a regional network run by Iran, and now, after America’s aggression against Iran, it considers them a threat that affects its interests and the interests of its allies.

Al-Zaidi had written in an article published by the Washington Post before his visit to America that his government was “Committed to ensuring that the state possesses the legitimate monopoly on the use of force,” stressing that Iraq “stands at an equal distance from regional alignments and conflicts and instead chooses the path of development.”

In an exclusive interview with Al-Hurra, the spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in Iraq, Sabah Al-Numan, said that Baghdad informed Washington that it is continuing to implement the decision to restrict weapons to the state, with the end of the international coalition’s mission at the end of September. He added that the government considers the decision to be “Iraqi sovereign, derived from constitutional legitimacy and popular support,” stressing that the end of the coalition’s mission will end, according to Baghdad’s vision, the justifications used by some factions to keep weapons.

However, it must be noted that this issue is not an easy matter and cannot be implemented easily or smoothly like the corruption issue. Instead, it is thorny and complex and its decision is linked to a land other than Iraq, which is Iran. It may lead to an armed clash between the factions and the state and even to a civil war. Therefore, dealing with this issue will be with extreme caution, otherwise the outcome will be undesirable.

As for the other two paths, which are security and economics, they are the most dangerous, because they represent the true sovereignty of the land. They consolidate the American occupation of Iraq and make it legal through complete domination of oil and investments. This is why the package of economic agreements, oil projects, and new pipelines came as part of a broader American vision aimed at reducing Iraq’s dependence on the Strait of Hormuz, and linking its economy to new export networks, especially since Iraqi oil revenues will be deposited in an account with the Federal Reserve in New York. It gives Washington financial influence and control over the country’s economy.

Therefore, we say: There is no benefit to our situation and no dignity for us in a state that has lost independence, receiving orders and dictates from its occupier, and playing with words and labels. At a time when it announces the withdrawal of American military forces, it signs a strategic security and economic agreement, and continues cooperation in the fields of: training, armament, and military consultation, while maintaining the security relationship between the two countries! What is the security relationship between an occupied land and its occupier?! What independence is there, when everyone knows that Iraq’s money and economy are mortgaged to the US Federal Reserve?!

The bottom line is that the repercussions of this visit will become clear upon Al-Zaidi’s return, and can he implement it realistically, or will it go through a difficult process, especially since skeptical statements appeared before Al-Zaidi’s return? The Reconstruction and Development Coalition, headed by former Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani, confirmed on Friday, 17 July 2026, that all agreements that the current Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi will conclude with America will be presented to the coordination framework, the State Administration Coalition, and the House of Representatives, for approval or rejection.

The matter is dangerous, and it wreaks pain in the heart as we see the capital of Khaleefah Haroon Ar-Rasheed in this humiliation and indignity begging for solutions from its enemy. The people of Iraq should decide their fate, return to their Islamic identity, establish the ruling governance of Allah (swt), liberate their land from the kafir (disbeliever’s) domination in all its forms, and return Baghdad to its former glory and prestige.