PM Middle East tour targets oil export alternatives for Iraq

Shafaq News- Baghdad

A US-backed plan to connect Iraq with its neighbors through overland trade and security routes is framing the foreign tour of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, whose visit to Qatar centered on regional security arrangements and on identifying a new export corridor for Iraqi oil as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, a government source told Shafaq News.

Tom Barrack, the US presidential envoy to Iraq, said on Friday that Iraq is leading security and strategic alignments in the region by linking the Gulf states, the Levant, Turkiye, and Egypt. He considered that an arrangement connecting these countries would move reliance from maritime shipping through Hormuz to overland routes and integrated logistics, reducing the strait's strategic weight within two years.

According to an insider, Al-Zaidi's schedule of foreign visits, including Turkiye, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, was presented to the leaders of the Coordination Framework, the political alliance that chose him for premiership and holds the largest bloc in the parliament.

During the Tehran visit, al-Zaidi expected to take on a mediating role aimed at narrowing differences between Iran and the United States. He would also revive an earlier Iraqi effort to broker reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the same source said.

Water allocations top the agenda for Turkiye, a third source revealed, describing the file as a priority for Iraq. Also under discussion is the activation of joint intelligence and security work linking Iraq, Iran, Turkiye, Jordan, and Syria, with the stated aim of unifying efforts to end conflict in the region.

The deployment of Turkish military bases in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is a further item on the Ankara agenda, alongside mechanisms for pulling those forces back to the border strip.

“Al-Zaidi is seeking to draw on the American backing he has received during his visit to Washington to unblock outstanding files between Iraq and neighboring states,” the government source said.

Read more: Trump's new Iraq-Syria envoy faces an Iran test Syria never posed