For the first time in two months, a change was observed in the Iraqi political discourse towards both Iran and the United States.
Although both Tehran and Washington have been comfortable for years in making Iraq an arena for settling their scores, the Iraqi perspective, whether for balancing the relationship between the two parties or the way it deals with the independence of its political decision, differed with the change of governments that succeeded after 2003.
The positions of the powers, blocs, parties, components, and subsequently the armed factions that are often described as loyal to Iran, vary ebb and flow in terms of the nature of the relationship with both Iran and the United States, and often extend towards the Arab Gulf region first and the rest of the Arab countries that are relatively close to Iraq, such as Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.
After the arrival of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani to office in October 2022, the Iraqi political discourse regarding Iran and America changed relatively.
Al-Sudani tried to insert the term “productive diplomacy” in the context of Iraq’s relations with its external regional and international environment.
Although Sudani’s approach goes towards activating the economic, development and investment dimension between Iraq and countries of the world, the relationship between Tehran and Washington during the past two decades was not based on this consideration.
Iraq’s dealings with these two powers remained based on a rule of playing on the paradox of impossible hostility for both of them and possible friendship, but from the perspective of the country’s sovereignty.
Both Tehran and Washington violated what Sudani tried to establish since he assumed office until the Gaza War, as both capitals chose their preferred arena to settle their scores on.
During his meeting on Tuesday with the Turkish Defense Minister, Sudani said that the security of Iraq and Turkiye are “interconnected, as is the case with the security of neighboring countries.”
In another meeting with the Secretary of the Iranian National Security Council, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, Sudani stressed that Iraq “rejects any unilateral actions undertaken by any country in contravention of international principles that are based on mutual respect for sovereignty.”
The official Iraqi discourse has begun to escalate in its rejection of these practices, which reflects efforts to consolidate the country’s sovereignty despite the difficulties that stand in the way, including the strength of Iran’s influence inside Iraq and the weakness of Baghdad’s opinion within American institutions.
