Skip to content
You can now search across every topic, entity and event.What's new
European Energy Markets
18JUN

Baghdad cancels Riyadh visit over strike

2 min read
09:57UTC

Ali al-Zaidi convened Iraq's ruling bloc at the government palace, then scrapped his first official trip to Saudi Arabia, due the following morning.

← Back to German spark spread flips +EUR 15 in 48hrsJump to analysis ↓
EconomicAssessed
Key takeaway

Al-Zaidi spent the cheapest instrument he owns, and kept the expensive ones in reserve.

Iraq's prime minister Ali al-Zaidi convened an emergency meeting of the Coordination Framework, the alliance of Shia parties that forms his parliamentary majority, at the government palace on Wednesday 29 July to address what his office called "American-Saudi aggressions" against Iraqi sovereignty 1. Iraq's National Security Council called the strikes "a flagrant violation of Iraq's sovereignty and the sanctity of its lands" 2.

Then came the part that costs something. Al-Zaidi cancelled his first official visit to Saudi Arabia, scheduled for Thursday 30 July 3. The same day, the National Security Council directed the Iraqi Foreign Ministry to move through international and regional channels to stop further strikes on Iraqi territory 4.

Baghdad had spent the previous week arguing the opposite case to Tehran's allies, insisting it "will not allow its territory to be used to launch attacks against neighbouring countries". Riyadh's account of the drones fired at its oil infrastructure on 27 July puts al-Zaidi between two constituencies at once: a Saudi investment relationship built since 2021, and armed factions inside his own security apparatus that reject the attribution outright. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the umbrella name Iran-aligned militias use for operations against American forces, said a military response against US targets was "inevitable" and could extend to American assets based in Saudi Arabia 5.

Al-Zaidi can put the Riyadh trip back in the diary next month, whereas an expelled ambassador or a review of the American troop presence could not be undone quietly. Al-Zaidi has spent the cheapest thing he owns, which tells you he expects to need the expensive ones later.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Iraq's prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, was due to make his first official visit to Saudi Arabia on 30 July. He cancelled it after Saudi jets struck targets inside Iraq the day before. Al-Zaidi called together Iraq's Coordination Framework, the group of political parties that keeps him in power, to decide how to respond. Many of those parties have close ties to the militia group that Saudi Arabia just bombed, so visiting Riyadh right now would have looked like he was siding against his own political allies.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

Al-Zaidi's cancellation is structurally forced by the Coordination Framework's composition: the coalition that keeps him in office includes parties whose armed wings sit inside the PMF, so a visit to the country that just struck PMF positions would read domestically as endorsing the strike against his own governing coalition's constituents.

Iraq lacks an independent air-defence or intelligence-sharing arrangement with Saudi Arabia that might have let Baghdad pre-clear or object to the strike beforehand, leaving al-Zaidi with no diplomatic channel to manage the incident short of convening the Coordination Framework itself.

Escalation

Direction: diplomatic freeze, not military escalation. No Iraqi military response has been reported; the cancellation is a political signal to domestic coalition partners rather than a retaliatory step against Riyadh.

What could happen next?
  • Consequence

    A prolonged freeze in Baghdad-Riyadh contact could stall Saudi investment commitments in Iraqi reconstruction projects that depend on regular ministerial engagement.

  • Risk

    The Coordination Framework's Iran-aligned factions may use the cancellation to press for a formal Iraqi condemnation of Saudi Arabia at the Arab League.

Sources:Monte Carlo Doualiya·The Media Line
Mentions:Ali al-Zaidi →Saudi Arabia →Iranian Foreign Ministry →Hezbollah →Lebanon →Baghdad →Riyadh →Shia →Iran →Tehran →Iraq →Beirut →United States National Security Council →
First Reported In

Update #164 · The pause ends, and the map moves west

Monte Carlo Doualiya· 31 Jul 2026
Read original →
Causes and effects
Caused by
Saudi jets hit Iraq, citing Article 51
Baghdad's cancellation of Zaidi's Saudi visit and NSC directives were a direct response to the Saudi strike inside Iraq.
Occurred 29 Jul 2026
Read story →
This Event
Baghdad cancels Riyadh visit over strike
A cancelled first state visit is a small instrument, but it is the one Baghdad reached for, and it lands on the relationship Riyadh has spent five years building.
Different Perspectives
Cross-border power traders
Cross-border power traders
The France-Germany day-ahead spread flipped from a EUR 17.20 German premium on 1 August to a EUR 4.15 French premium on 3 August, the same day French curtailment peaked. They cannot yet attribute the flip to curtailment alone, since a like-for-like overnight comparison shows French nuclear output rising while wind fell and demand returned on the weekday step.
EDF
EDF
River-cooling limits took 7.6 GW, 12 per cent of its fleet, offline on 3 August, the highest curtailment since the heatwave began, with an easing forecast to 4.3 GW on 4 August and 3 GW after. It manages the cut as a recurring seasonal constraint, expecting it to lift with river temperature, not repair.
Gasunie
Gasunie
TTF, the Dutch hub it operates, drifted to roughly EUR 55 to 58 per MWh across the window, staying inside its recent range through both the German spark reversal and the French curtailment. It reads a flat hub price as evidence that neither event this window carried enough weight to move the fuel leg on its own.
German gas-fired generators
German gas-fired generators
Record German solar of 18,761 MW on 2 August pushed the clean spark spread to minus 18.48 EUR/MWh, a loss-making day, before it returned to plus 16.20 on 3 August. They now price dispatch against post-solar residual load rather than wind alone, since the sign flipped inside 48 hours on unchanged fuel and carbon costs.
European Commission (DG Energy)
European Commission (DG Energy)
Its implementing-measures register logged transposition notices from only Portugal and Slovakia against Wednesday's Article 94 deadline for Directive (EU) 2024/1788, with 25 states silent. It expects the register to fill only gradually, since filing routinely lags legislating and any infringement track against non-notifying states runs on a slower clock than the deadline itself.
Spain's LNG terminal operators
Spain's LNG terminal operators
Spain's 9,145 GWh terminal inventory is the largest single stock in the EU LNG network, an option value that can reroute cargoes wherever the winter strip pays best rather than a cavern gas obligation tied to a fixed date. That flexibility matters more as Germany's cavern shortfall pushes more of the winter security question onto import infrastructure.