This is how Iraq moves away from Iran and draws closer to Washington and its Arab environment

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi extends a hand to Washington through a "strategic dialogue" and to Gulf parties through a recent tour between Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, despite all the pressures he is facing on the domestic political arena.

The "strategic dialogue" that begins Wednesday with the new US administration headed by Joe Biden is a new balance test for the independent Kazemi who does not have a popular or party base.

Before this stop, Al-Kazemi received the Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers and visited the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, Washington's main traditional allies in the Middle East.

Political analyst Ihssan Al-Shammari said to Agence France-Presse that all of this "is a message to Iran that Iraq has the right to take another course in its foreign relations, depending on its Arab environment, as Iraq cannot be a unilateral relationship as Iran and its allies want."

Al-Husseini confirmed the Iraqi Hezbollah’s refusal to engage in dialogue with Washington (Al-Jazeera)

Conflicting positions

Al-Kazemi, whose role is supposed to prepare the country for early elections, the timing of which is still ambiguous so far, has to deal with a powerful Shiite camp loyal to Iran, as well as with the Sunni and Kurdish minorities that see the American presence as a protection for them, and with the neighbors and opponents of Iran in the Gulf.

Western and Iraqi officials believe that Al-Kazimi wants a timetable for withdrawal from dialogue with Washington.

By this, he would guarantee Western military support against the Islamic State, but at the same time giving guarantees to the Iranian loyalists that he is working to implement the parliament’s decision to withdraw American forces, but that may take years.

Even before the start of the talks, the spokesman for the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, Jaafar al-Husseini, expressed his rejection of this dialogue, and said, "The negotiations are of no value because the Iraqi people have decided their decision to end the American occupation," adding, "The Iraqi resistance continues to pressure America."

However, Al-Kazemi benefits at the same time from the support of a prominent Shiite party to visit Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, which is the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, who called 18 years ago to take up arms to deter the American invasion.

Al-Sadr said in a tweet that "the opening of Iraq to the Arab countries is a step towards the right path," noting that he himself visited Riyadh and Abu Dhabi in the summer of 2017.

American and Iraqi soldiers believe that, with the threat of ISIS in Iraq receding into secret cells in the mountains and deserts, the source of the threat has become the pro-Iranian factions, pointing to the repeated attacks with missiles or explosive devices targeting logistical support convoys for the international coalition, and that these factions sometimes adopt attacks outside Iraqi territories.

Al-Kazemi assured the Saudi Crown Prince that Iraq will not allow any aggression against the Kingdom (Anatolia)

Reassure Riyadh

Last week, during his visit to Riyadh, Al-Kazemi tried to reassure the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who has a good personal relationship with him, saying, "We will not allow any aggression against the Kingdom."

And last January, explosive drones crashed in the main royal palace in Riyadh, in an attack, media outlets in the United States quoted American officials as saying that the planes that launched it were launched from neighboring Iraq.

In Baghdad, an unknown faction, which is a front for known factions loyal to Iran, according to analysts, claimed that attack, but Al-Kazemi confirmed from Riyadh that "there were no attacks" on Riyadh from Iraq.

It was decided that Saudi Arabia would be the target of Al-Kazemi's first foreign visit as prime minister in the summer, but for health reasons, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz requested that it be postponed.

Instead of Riyadh, Al-Kazemi visited Tehran, where he met officials headed by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

After Saudi Arabia, Al-Kazemi visited Abu Dhabi, where talks dealt with the economy and investments.

With a Saudi pledge to double investments in Iraq 5 times, to more than two and a half billion dollars, Al-Kazemi sends an internal political message that he "does not want to be a party with only one side, but rather wants to work diligently to bring investments to Iraq from neighboring countries" and others. According to an Iraqi official, who requested anonymity.

Any economic push for Iraq would be in Iran's interest at the same time, especially since Tehran needs Baghdad to buy its imports and exchange messages with Arab countries.