Four countries – Iraq, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar – have signed an agreement on the development of Iraq, which involves multi-billion dollar investments in infrastructure and other areas of Iraq. For example, it is planned to build about 1.2 km of railway. Iraq can thus become a tangible transport channel from China or Central Asia to Europe. The quadripartite agreement takes place after the Turkish president’s visit to Iraq.
This agreement is certainly not just “about” four countries. It can change the regional configuration, not only in the Middle East, but also in the adjacent zone, even in the Caucasus, of course with an indirect effect. Iraq is one of Iran’s key partners in the Middle East-Gulf zone. How will the investments of Turkey, UAE, Qatar in Iraq affect this partnership, can they contribute to the weakening of the Iran-Iraq relationship or connection?
Here, however, there is another circumstance. In 2022, an international security conference was held in Iraq, to which France was the only non-regional participant, and that at a high level. President Macron arrived in Baghdad to attend the conference. Of course, this spoke about the importance France attaches to the region and to Iraq in particular, essentially within the context of the defense of its “Overseas Territories”, which Macron announced weeks ago. Weeks ago, the French president arrived in India, and the agenda of the visit, of course, in a broad sense touched on the agenda of communication channels, including the Gulf zone. The Iraq-UAE-Qatar-Turkey quadripartite agreement may also violate France’s calculations.
Of course, everything is not the same for France and Iran, taking into account, for example, their good relationship with Qatar. On the other hand, Turkey has a close relationship with Qatar and even a military presence. It is known that Britain has the resources to exert considerable influence on the UAE, of course, the Emirates, while being a regional sovereign actor with considerable weight, and Washington has a fairly close relationship with Qatar.
Thus, a rather complicated game is being played around Iraq, which will undoubtedly have an impact on developments in the Caucasus as well. In this regard, what was the content of the Yerevan-Baghdad contacts, first at the Munich security meeting of the prime ministers, and then within the framework of the Armenian president’s visit to Iraq?
