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The transition of power in Iraq usually moves with the glacial, agonizing pace of a desert sandstorm, choked by the competing interests of Tehran and Washington. But when the Coordination Framework—the coalition of Iran-aligned Shiite parties—finally settled on Iraq’s next prime minister, the process took exactly twenty-five minutes.
The result was Ali al-Zaidi, a 40-year-old banker with no political pedigree and a “blank slate” resume. To some in Baghdad, he is a compromise; to Washington, he is the byproduct of a high-stakes financial and diplomatic squeeze that has redefined American leverage in the post-U.S.-Israeli war landscape.
