The U.S. work to have Iran’s influence on Iraq’s energy sector reduced made progress last week when Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi visited Washington for high-level meetings with President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. The U.S. Administration’s push to reduce Iraq’s dependence on energy imports from Iran—including electricity and natural gas—could see rapprochement and closer energy cooperation between Iraq, the only Arab country in the Gulf region that is not a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and Iran’s archrival in the region and a key U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia. A top-level Iraqi delegation, led by Prime Minister Al-Kadhimi, visited Washington last week and agreed to work, with help from the United States, on connecting Iraq’s electricity grid to Saudi Arabia’s, and possibly Kuwait’s—the GCC state that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded in 1990, triggering the Persian Gulf War. “We’ve […]