Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi is due to visit Iran later this week following a trip to the United States, where he met President Donald Trump, Iraqi state media reported on Sunday.
Washington and Tehran are Iraq’s two main allies, yet their long-running hostility has repeatedly turned the country into a proxy battleground, leaving successive governments struggling to maintain a delicate balance between the two rivals, who have traded intensifying attacks in recent days.
Iraq’s national news agency INA quoted the foreign ministry as saying Al-Zaidi will travel to Tehran “at the end of this week,” where he is expected to sign memorandums of understanding “to strengthen bilateral ties.”
It will be his first visit to Iran since he came to power this year with Washington’s backing, after Trump vetoed another candidate.
Al-Zaidi returned home on Sunday from his week-long trip to the United States, having secured 48 agreements and partnerships with American companies. A businessman by background, he has pledged to strengthen Iraq’s fragile economy and to disarm pro-Iran groups that have targeted US facilities.
In recent days, attacks blamed on Iran have struck Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, which hosts US troops and foreign oil companies, as well as exiled Iranian Kurdish rebels.
