Baghdad (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in New York on Monday and received an invitation from U.S. President Joe Biden to visit the White House, a State Department spokesperson said.
Sudani, who is in New York to participate in the U.N. General Assembly, said a date for the official visit to Washington would be set at a later time, Iraqi state media reported.
Biden and Sudani have yet to meet since Sudani took office last year after being appointed by a coalition of parties, predominantly Shi’ite Muslim groups close to Tehran.
He has since walked a diplomatic tightrope between the U.S. and Iran, two countries that in the past have fought out their rivalry on Iraqi soil.
Sudani and Blinken “renewed their commitment to continue strengthening the partnership between the two countries,” the State Department spokesperson said.
Iraq has been a close partner of the U.S. since Washington’s 2003 invasion and both sides say they are trying to broaden their relationship from a near-singular focus on defence and counter-terrorism towards economic cooperation.
Blinken during the meeting “underscored U.S. support” for the re-opening of a pipeline between Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and Turkey that has been shut since March.
Turkey said last week the pipeline, which contributes about 0.5% of world oil supply, would be ready to resume operations soon, though it is unclear whether Baghdad and Ankara have agreed to the terms of a resumption of crude flows.
Blinken also “commended the Prime Minister’s commitment to judicial independence in Iraq’s recent conviction and sentencing of multiple individuals on terrorism charges in connection with the killing of U.S. citizen Stephen Troell.”
Iraq last month sentenced an Iranian man and four Iraqis to life in prison over Troell’s November 2022 killing in a middle class neighbourhood in central Baghdad.
Court officials did not name the defendants but said the four Iraqis were members of a Shi’ite Muslim militia.
