Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi travels to Damascus and meets Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa

28 October 2026

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi arrived in Damascus to meet Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. It was the first time the head of an Iraqi government had gone to Syria since Bashar al-Assad was removed. He said the Iraqi and Syrian people are one people in two countries, and sought a deeper partnership between the two neighbours. Oil and trade were the business of the talks. The two leaders took up the export of Iraqi oil through the Baniyas line, a larger volume of trade and joint work on farming. Earlier in the year the two countries signed agreements to revive the Haditha Baniyas pipeline, along with a memorandum of understanding with a consortium of three companies, most notably Chevron, to carry out the project. The Iraqi News Agency, or INA, carried the account of the visit. The two had met earlier in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.