Iranian objections to Al Zaidi government delays cabinet formation in Iraq

HAPPENING THIS WEEK- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in the UAE this Friday, where he’ll be kicking off a five-nation tour that will take him to the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Italy, according to a statement. Modi is scheduled to meet President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss energy cooperation and a comprehensive strategic partnership, among other topics.

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The path to a new Iraqi government has a hurdle to clear: Iran. Tehran is reportedly throwing a last-minute wrench at Iraq’s plans to form a new cabinet, just days after Iraq’s Prime Minister-designate Ali Al Zaidi was well on his way to secure parliamentary approval for his ministerial lineup. Iran’s objection is to what it perceives as a path leading to a “purely American government,” two Iraqi officials tell Asharq Alawsat.

The context: A high-level Iranian delegation led by Esmail Qaani, the commander of the IRGC’s foreign arm, the Quds Force, held meetings with Iraqi security officials in Baghdad earlier this week. The visit came as Al Zaidi, who is backed by Washington and a broad group of Iraqi political parties, was reported to have reached a consensus on who would sit around the cabinet table, but the exclusion of a group of Iran-aligned political groups in the consultations likely sprung Tehran into action.

What to watch for: It remains unclear whether Iran’s “veto,” as one of the Iraqi officials described it to Asharq Alawsat, will actually be upheld. The tacit approval of both the US and Iran has been important in the post-2003 political system — the US controls most of Iraq’s oil revenues and has military bases in the country, whereas Iran funds and controls political groups with armed wings that are quasi-integrated in the state.

UAE state-backed AI champion G42’s plan for a USD 1 bn geothermal-fired data center in Kenya just hit another speedbump, after the Kenyan government reportedly said it was unable to commit to the fixed payments G42 and its project partner Microsoft were seeking, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The two were reportedly asking for the Kenyan government to pay for a fixed amount of the center’s final capacity, originally planned to have a capacity of up to 1 GW. The project could be scaled back, with details on the financing and how the data center will be powered still unclear.

Background: Back in 2024, Microsoft and G42 teamed up to build the data center in Olkaria, a geothermal-rich area in Kenya. The original timeline had it running with 100 MW of capacity by this year. Last year, a report suggested that G42 had not broken ground as developers struggled to find a business case for the project.

A UAE-managed LPG carrier with a track record of moving Iranian cargo is sailing through the Strait of Hormuz under Indian colors. Tara Gas — owned by UAE-based Global Gas and managed by Dubai-based Matrix Maritime — is broadcasting Indian ownership and crew as it transits the strait, according to ship-tracking data cited by Bloomberg. The vessel has previously carried Iranian LPG, including a shipment to China earlier this year.