As the New Year begins, Trump intervenes in Iraqi policies.
The US President’s envoy to Iraq, Mark Sawaya, issued an interventionist message on the occasion of the beginning of the New Year on Thursday.
He spoke of working with the Iraqi government within the framework of the constitution and law to ensure a bright future for Iraqis, and in his congratulatory message for the beginning of 2026, he said: This year is the year of the end of cases of uncontrolled weapons, corruption, and foreign interference.
Sawaya, pointing out that the new year brings better opportunities, stability, and a brighter future for all Iraqis, claimed: There is an approach in the new year to end cases of instability, plunder of the country’s resources, weak services, uncontrolled weapons, smuggling, unemployment, militias, money laundering, ignorance, internal tensions, formal contracts, poverty, foreign interference, embezzlement, inequality, corruption, circumvention of the law, and oppression.
Continuing his interventionist statements, he said: These words are addressed to those who committed corruption in Iraq. Your time is over, and the time of Iraq and the Iraqis has begun.
Sawaya recently posted on his personal page, implicitly threatening Iraqi politicians that they should accept American dictates.
Al-Akhbar newspaper previously reported: Analysts believe that Sawaya’s appointment is part of Trump’s strategy to redraw the map of influence in West Asia and an attempt to weaken and divide the forces of the resistance axis, including Iraqi groups, through indirect pressure to disarm and distance them from Iran.
Choosing someone with Iraqi roots, mastery of the Arabic language, and cultural knowledge of Iraqi society can facilitate direct and immediate contact with political, religious, and ethnic currents. In addition, Sawaya’s Christian status may provide the basis for greater interaction between minorities.
He will likely try to infiltrate Iraq’s political decision-making structure through slogans of economic development, under the pretext of solving livelihood, industrial, and agricultural problems. In fact, based on Trump’s interpretation that “Iraqis don’t know how to use their oil wealth,” Sawiya’s mission is nothing more than “teaching how to manage wealth, in accordance with Washington’s interests.”