Iraq’s PM Zaidi to meet Trump in New York in final week before coalition leaves

BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi will address the United Nations General Assembly and meet President Donald Trump in New York next week, in the last days before the U.S.-led coalition’s mission in Iraq ends on Sept. 30.

The visit will also include meetings with several heads of state, government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi said, without giving dates or detail. The assembly’s high-level debate runs from Sept. 22 to 28.

It is his second meeting with Trump in ten weeks, and he goes having softened the position he set out at the first. At the White House on July 14 Zaidi said there would be no justification for armed factions after Sept. 30. Since then his security adviser Qasim al-Araji has said the date marks the start of talks rather than a deadline, Nouri al-Maliki said disarmament was no longer the term being used, and a Hikma Movement spokesperson said this week that the government will announce the general principles of the plan in early October and implement them gradually afterwards, with the factions having submitted their demands in writing.

Iraqi agencies and companies announced 48 agreements and memorandums with U.S. firms during the July visit, covering oil, electricity, industry, technology and finance. The prime minister’s office has not published the texts or said how many were binding contracts.