In Iraq, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani congratulated Donald Trump and said he wanted to strengthen ties with the United States.
"Iraq reaffirms its steadfast commitment to strengthening bilateral relations with the United States, grounded in mutual respect and shared interests," he said in a statement.
And Iraqi President Abdullatif J Rashid said he hopes the administration can “foster much-needed stability and constructive dialogue in the region”.
In 2021, Baghdad’s investigative court issued an arrest warrant for Trump following the U.S. airstrike that killed the Iranian Revolutionary Guard general Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis — the Iraqi deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces.
Shia militias backed by Iran have major political influence in Iraq. But the Iraqi Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee said it intends to engage with a Trump administration regardless of the arrest warrant, underscoring that it is in Iraq’s national interest to do so.
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