Washington is losing confidence...but it wants calm in Iraq

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The statements of US President Donald Trump about Iraq and Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, all of which are positive, hide another aspect of the difficulties facing al-Zaidi and American policy in Iraq.

Private sources told Al Arabiya/Al-Hadath that the United States has stopped cooperation with the Iraqi armed forces and that it has suspended American training programs for Iraqis. It has also refused in recent weeks to provide spare parts and technology for the American-made F-16 aircraft used by the Iraqis.

But it is certain that “intelligence cooperation against ISIS is still continuing,” according to the sources.

There is not yet an official position from the American authorities on this issue and its causes, but the American position is divided into two parts, the first stresses cooperation with the Iraqi government and the second is full of frustration with Al-Zaidi’s inability to achieve the promised achievements at the required speed.

An American official who spoke to Al-Arabiya/Al-Hadath said, “The Americans made thousands of sacrifices, both military and civilian, and with allies, to fight ISIS,” and added: “We are now at a time when we do not say that the threat has ended, but it has declined, and ISIS no longer poses a systematic threat to the security of Iraq, and the Iraqi forces have the will, ability, and leadership to confront what remains of the danger... Now we are moving to the stage of transferring the coalition from Iraq and moving to a bilateral relationship.”

The American official also stressed that the United States will continue to work with the Iraqis, "and we will see where this relationship goes."

It was striking that American officials did not talk much about the risks to which their soldiers were exposed by pro-Iranian militias, but they always spoke in the language of threatening a harsh response if they were attacked. Now the Americans feel that they will deal with Iraq from a distance. They withdrew their soldiers from areas under the control of the Iraqi government at the end of September 2025, and this part was the most important. Then they completed the withdrawal by leaving Iraqi Kurdistan last month.

While the complete withdrawal from Iraq provides a kind of protection for American soldiers, especially if matters escalate between Washington and Tehran, the militias will not be able to attack sites and barracks on Iraqi territory. Now the Americans must deal with the security risks in Iraq “from a distance,” and deal with the political situation and Iranian influence from a narrow distance, which is the size of the American embassy in Baghdad.

The Americans began to come to the conclusion that Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi would not be able to resolve matters against the militias and Iranian influence, even slowly, because “the government is not with the strength and cohesion required, and Iranian influence has penetrated the joints of the Iraqi state for years, financial corruption is rampant, and Tehran benefits from the Iraqi treasury and from money smuggling.”

Even the demands of the US Treasury Department to control waste and prevent money from reaching the Iranians do not reach a tangible result. The US Treasury Department refused to talk about this issue explicitly, but it always calls on Iraq to be part of the financial and economic blockade campaign against Iran.

Iraq seemed to respond to Washington when it prevented Iranian aircraft from using Iraqi airports, but Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein devoted a long time to speaking to the US Secretary of the Treasury during his recent visit to Washington, and asked him to allow Iranian aircraft to come to Najaf airport.

The frustration is also Iraqi. There are large movements in Iraq that want the Prime Minister to be a national and capable figure, and to remove the country from the current hegemony.

But political and non-political figures spoke to Al-Arabiya / Al-Hadath and said that Al-Zaidi’s steps were “rushed and ill-considered” and had not reached a result yet. These figures have become convinced that the Prime Minister is surrounded by religious figures and a political class that benefits from waste and corruption, while Iran seeks to integrate its influence as much as possible into Iraqi society and national institutions, and to flood the market with less expensive Iranian goods.

One of the speakers told Al-Arabiya / Al-Hadath that “Iraq has a democratic system, but it is weak,” so it failed to produce a strong government that can confront Iranian influence, waste, and corruption.

The only thing preventing an explosion between the Americans and the Iraqis now is that the US administration knows that it has a major challenge, which is reaching a solution with Iran, or launching a massive military strike on the Iranian regime, and it will be easier for Washington to deal with one crisis rather than two crises at the same time.