Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and Transport Minister Razzaq al-Saadawi signed an agreement with Turkey to build a road connecting the Grand Faw Port in southern Iraq to Turkey, with onward links to Europe and Asia, according to a report. The transport minister initially refused to sign but relented after the prime minister's urging, the report added.
The agreement was reported by a regional the source covering the Arab world. According to the report, the Iraqi transport minister initially refused to sign but eventually did after the prime minister's personal intervention. The channel's commentator, Oren Ben Yehezkel, assessed that the minister's reluctance stemmed from the agreement's implications for reducing Iranian influence in Iraq, as Turkey steps into a perceived vacuum. The signing comes amid Prime Minister al-Zaidi's ongoing diplomatic balancing act, which has included visits to Washington and Tehran in recent weeks. The road project is part of a broader pattern of regional infrastructure initiatives; as The Zioneer reported in June, Turkey's transport minister announced plans for a rail corridor linking Saudi Arabia to Turkey via Jordan.
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