Coverage spread: 2 sources — 2 center
Lean ratings via AllSides / Media Bias-Fact-Check. How this works.
Where they agree
- Iraq’s Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi visited Washington and Houston in July, resulting in 48 agreements with U.S. companies and a floated figure of up to $100 billion in investment over five years.
- Iraq faces genuine cross-pressure between the U.S., Iran and China, given Iran’s role in its power grid and militias, and China’s role as an oil investor and buyer.
- U.S. and Saudi forces struck Iran-backed militia sites in eastern Iraq in early August in response to drone attacks attributed to Iran’s IRGC.
- The strikes occurred amid a broader five-month U.S.-Iran conflict involving attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, Kuwait, and Gaza.
Where they differ
- Forbes (Silverstein) focuses on the investment deal and Iraq’s diplomatic balancing act, framing U.S. money as leverage tied to national security doctrine.
- Forbes (Iddon) focuses narrowly on Iraq’s failed history of air-defense modernization pledges, using the U.S.-Saudi strikes as the latest example of a recurring, unfulfilled promise.
- Fortune’s coverage centers on the regional war itself — Trump’s threats, the Saudi crown prince’s direct intervention urging restraint, and simultaneous attacks in Kuwait, the Strait of Hormuz, and Gaza — with Iraq mentioned mainly as one alert-listed country rather than a central subject.
- Only Forbes reports the specific casualty figures from the strikes on Iraqi militias (20 killed, 32 wounded) and Baghdad’s claim it had no advance knowledge of the operation.
What Iraq’s prime minister signed in Washington
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi met Donald Trump in the Oval Office on July 14, a meeting Trump described as having “tremendous chemistry.” Two days later, in Houston, al-Zaidi met executives from Halliburton, Shell, Baker Hughes, Weatherford and GE Vernova. By the end of the trip, Iraq had signed 48 agreements with American companies, with officials floating a figure of up to $100 billion in foreign direct investment over five years aimed largely at overhauling Iraq’s oil sector.
Al-Zaidi is a businessman with no previous political career who emerged as a compromise candidate after Washington objected to Iraq’s dominant parliamentary bloc backing Nouri al-Maliki, seen by the Trump administration as too close to Iran. Al-Zaidi arrived in Washington having already committed to disarming Iran-backed militias by September 30, the date set for U.S. troops to leave Iraq. Analyst Ahmed Al-Windi, of the Ghadan Foundation for Risk Management and the Baghdad International Energy Forum, told Forbes that under Washington’s current national-security doctrine, U.S. commercial assets abroad are increasingly treated as security interests — meaning a bigger American footprint in Iraq’s oil sector gives Washington a direct stake in the country’s stability.
A country still tied to Iran and China
Iraq’s tilt toward American investment doesn’t erase its existing dependencies. Iran supplies power to Iraq’s electrical grid, and China remains a major investor in and buyer of Iraqi oil. Al-Windi argued Iraq could try to hold a careful neutrality, using its relationships with the U.S., Iran and China simultaneously rather than picking one. But Forbes notes Washington’s direct role in shaping Iraq’s leadership — intervening against a candidate it viewed as pro-Iran — suggests Baghdad’s room for balancing all three powers may be narrower than officials admit.
Strikes inside Iraq expose the strain
That balancing act was tested directly in early August, when U.S. and Saudi fighter jets struck what U.S. Central Command called “multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites” in eastern Iraq, in response to more than 30 drone attacks it attributed to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps over 72 hours. Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, a state-sanctioned paramilitary network that includes Iran-aligned factions operating outside Baghdad’s control, said the strikes killed 20 fighters and wounded 32.
Iraqi government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi said Baghdad had not approved the strikes and had no advance knowledge of them. Al-Zaidi canceled a planned trip to Saudi Arabia and ordered forces to raise alert levels across military bases and PMF camps. His spokesperson, Sabah al-Numan, called modernizing Iraq’s air defenses a “top priority” — a pledge Forbes notes Baghdad has made before, after previous American and Iranian strikes on its soil more than six years ago, without following through. Existing plans to buy South Korean Cheongung-II systems and French Rafale jets have stalled over unpaid installments and budget shortfalls, and earlier attempts to acquire Russian S-300/S-400 systems collapsed partly over U.S. sanctions concerns.
The wider war driving events
The strikes on Iraq are part of a broader, five-month-old conflict between the U.S. and Iran. Trump said on a Saturday evening social media post that Middle East allies had reached the outline of a deal to end the war, including what he called the “Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT” and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat; he said he would hold off ordering new strikes to pursue it, and that Israel had agreed to join the effort. That statement came after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Trump to raise concerns about further U.S. escalation, worried that strikes on Iranian energy or infrastructure could prompt Iranian retaliation against Gulf energy facilities, according to Axios reporting cited by Fortune.
Just a day earlier, Trump had told reporters “we just want to win” against Iran and vowed to hit it “very hard,” while White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Tehran of breaking a prior truce memorandum by firing on commercial ships and killing American soldiers. The State Department issued travel security alerts for ten regional countries. Kuwait’s military said it intercepted drone attacks tied to Iran, a tanker was struck and another explosion reported near a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, and Israel carried out strikes on Gaza that killed at least four people after Hamas agreed to disarm.
Why Iraq’s position matters
Iraq sits at the center of overlapping pressures: a Washington that wants commercial and security leverage, an Iran that supplies its electricity and backs armed factions on its soil, and a China that buys its oil and invests in its economy. The August strikes show how quickly instability tied to the broader U.S.-Iran conflict can spill directly into Iraqi territory regardless of Baghdad’s preferences, complicating the investment-driven stability Washington says it wants to build.
Sources
Featured photo: White House https://x.com/WhiteHouse%7CThe White House via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)