Ali al-Zaidi

The New York Times reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi carried a US Ceasefire proposal to Tehran after meeting Donald Trump at the White House earlier in July 2026, putting it to Masoud Pezeshkian, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Abbas Araghchi, who reportedly rejected any deal leaving the Strait of Hormuz's final status unsettled. Iraqi authorities called the account groundless on 24 July; an Iranian official called it completely misleading the same day. The account is the New York Times' own, resting on unnamed sourcing, and both governments named in it have denied it; neither denial settles whether the meetings happened.

Al-Zaidi leads Iraq's government during a war on its borders that has repeatedly spilled into Iraqi territory, from strikes near Erbil to pressure on Iraqi Kurdistan's airspace, forcing Baghdad to balance its relationship with Washington against its exposure to Iranian retaliation.

He also condemned the six drones intercepted near Erbil International Airport on the morning of 24 July, an attack no group claimed and which briefly closed Iraqi Kurdistan's main airport. Taken together, the denied Mediation report and the Erbil incident on the same day underline how exposed Iraq is to a war it did not start.