Trump welcomes Iraqi prime minister as US pushes Baghdad to curb Iran’s influence

“We’re going to make some tremendous music together,” Trump told reporters during the Oval Office meeting.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

President Donald Trump welcomed Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi to the White House Tuesday, promoting closer economic ties as his administration presses Baghdad to curb Iran’s political, military and financial influence in Iraq.

“We’re going to make some tremendous music together,” Trump told reporters during the Oval Office meeting.

Trump said Iraq’s oil resources offered significant opportunities for expanded business with the United States. “We haven’t been dealing very much over the last four or five years with the previous administration,” he said. The country has “tremendous potential because of their oil and because of other things, but because of their oil, and we’re going to be doing a lot of deals.”

“We love Iraq,” Trump said earlier while greeting al-Zaidi at the West Wing.

The meeting follows a year of increased U.S. pressure on Baghdad to weaken Tehran’s influence, including demands to disarm Iran-aligned militias, reduce their political role and cut financial connections with Iran.

Washington previously cut funding to Iraqi security forces and temporarily prevented Baghdad from transferring its own dollars from U.S. banks to Iraq.

Al-Zaidi, a wealthy businessman with no previous political or international affairs experience, has sought to present himself as a potential partner for Trump.

His government persuaded the leaders of three Iraqi militias to pledge to disarm and launched an anti-corruption campaign that ordered the arrests of dozens of members of Iraq’s political elite.

The militias have not yet surrendered their weapons. Several figures considered closely connected to Tehran also disappeared from their homes before arrests began, prompting widespread suspicions within Iraq’s political establishment that they had received advance warnings.

Al-Zaidi owns a television station, holds state food contracts and is a co-owner of Al-Janoob Islamic Bank.

At Washington’s urging, Iraq’s central bank barred the bank from U.S. dollar transactions in 2024 over suspicions of laundering money for Iran and allied Iraqi militias.

The Iraqi prime minister is seeking U.S. energy investment and other economic agreements, arguing that stronger commercial ties with Washington could help Iraq move away from Tehran.

Al-Zaidi arrived in Washington less than a week after attending Iraqi government funeral ceremonies for Iran’s slain supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which drew hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.