Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s first foreign trip since taking office produced 48 signed agreements with US companies, more than $60 billion in energy, healthcare, and technology commitments — and a rare Starlink authorization. Beneath the ceremony, a strategic realignment is under way.
On July 14, 2026, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi arrived at the White House to meet President Donald Trump — the first foreign trip of his administration and the first Iraqi head-of-government visit to Washington in years. Al-Zaidi, a businessman with no prior political record, took office in May 2026 with explicit backing from the Trump administration, which had publicly opposed the return of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Trump greeted him with characteristic warmth, declaring “tremendous chemistry” and promising “a lot of deals.” What followed, over three days culminating July 18, was one of the largest single-visit commercial packages in the modern US-Iraq relationship.
The centerpiece was a US–Iraq business summit at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that produced 48 agreements, memorandums of understanding, and partnership declarations — worth more than $60 billion in aggregate, according to Iraqi officials. The energy sector dominated. ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, KBR, GE Vernova, and Halliburton signed deals with the Iraqi Ministries of Oil and Electricity aimed at expanding crude production capacity and modernizing power infrastructure. Several agreements target the reconstruction of the Kirkuk–Baniyas crude oil pipeline, a strategic conduit that would give Iraq an alternative export route to the Mediterranean at a moment when Gulf shipping remains under Iranian pressure.
The visit produced one particularly notable non-energy deal: Iraq’s government formally authorized Starlink, owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, to operate in the country. The agreement is significant both commercially and geopolitically — Iraq’s telecoms sector has historically been shaped by regional and state actors, and Starlink’s entry represents a US-tied communications channel that bypasses those networks. The healthcare and technology tracks of the summit produced additional agreements whose specifics have not been fully disclosed but which Iraqi officials describe as part of a coordinated modernization push.
The strategic backdrop shaped both sides’ calculus. Iraq is in urgent need of an economic boost: revenue from crude exports has been depressed for months by the Middle East war, and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has periodically disrupted the country’s main export route. For Washington, deepening commercial and energy ties with Baghdad offers both a source of alternate supply and a way to anchor Iraqi orientation westward at a moment when Iran is under acute pressure. According to reporting cited by Alhurra, Iranian officials pressed al-Zaidi to visit Tehran before Washington — a request he declined.
The deals, most of them non-binding memoranda, will take years to convert into actual production, revenue, and infrastructure. But the signal is unmistakable: for the first time in more than a decade, the Iraqi state is publicly and comprehensively re-anchoring its economic strategy on US partners. Whether the follow-through matches the ceremony will depend on execution — and on how much longer the wider regional war reshapes the terms of trade.
Key Facts
- — 48 agreements signed at US–Iraq business summit, US Chamber of Commerce (July 14–18, 2026)
- — Total value: $60+ billion across energy, healthcare, and technology (Iraqi Cabinet)
- — Oil/energy partners: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, KBR, GE Vernova, Halliburton
- — Chevron: rebuild Kirkuk–Baniyas crude oil pipeline (Iraq to Mediterranean)
- — Starlink (SpaceX) formally authorized to operate in Iraq
- — Al-Zaidi’s first foreign trip as PM; Iran had pressed him to visit Tehran first (Alhurra)
Sources: Al Jazeera — Trump meets Iraq PM · Arab News — 48 agreements · Al Jazeera — Syria pipeline revival · FDD — Zaidi meets Trump & Hegseth · Alhurra — Iran pressed al-Zaidi