US envoy Barrack praises Iraqi judiciary in meeting with chief justice

BAGHDAD — U.S. Presidential Envoy to Iraq Tom Barrack praised the Iraqi judiciary’s role in facilitating the formation of the country’s legislative and executive authorities during a meeting with Chief Justice Faiq Zaidan on Monday, Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said.

Zaidan received Barrack in Baghdad for talks that touched on the judiciary’s role within Iraq’s constitutional framework. Barrack commended “the role of the judiciary in completing the constitutional entitlements and the formation of the legislative and executive authorities,” the council said, without providing further detail.

Barrack arrived in Baghdad on Monday on an official visit, received by Chargé d’Affaires Joshua Harris and embassy staff, and was scheduled to meet the prime minister before traveling to Erbil. In a post on X, he said he would meet PM Zaidi later in the day to convey President Donald Trump’s support for the government and discuss a “partnership on a new direction for a strong and mutually beneficial U.S.-Iraq relationship.”

Barrack, who is also U.S. ambassador to Turkey and presidential envoy to Syria, took on the Iraq envoy role in January, succeeding Mark Savaya, an Iraqi-American appointed in October 2025. Trump announced an expanded Syria-and-Iraq envoy brief for Barrack on May 31.