According to Kurdistan Press, during the joint press conference between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, tension arose over the signing of one of the agreements related to the “Development Road” project.

At the ceremony, which was broadcast live, Iraqi Minister of Transport Wahb Salman al-Hasani initially did not show up to sign the transportation agreement within the framework of the Development Road project.After observing this situation, Erdogan asked: “Weren’t five agreements supposed to be signed?”

After this question, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also entered the signing site to investigate the matter.

Allegation of putting pressure on the Iraqi minister to sign the agreement

According to the claim made in the Turkish media report, Ali al-Zaidi spoke with the Iraqi Minister of Transport and asked him to sign the agreement. Some media outlets have described this conversation as the Iraqi Prime Minister putting pressure on his cabinet minister to sign the agreement.

After this conversation, Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloglu and Iraqi Minister of Transport Wahb Salman Muhammad signed two agreements in the field of transport.Iraqi Minister’s Opposition Allegedly Linked to Iran’s Position

The Cumhuriyet report also claims that the Iraqi Minister of Transport has close ties to the Iran-aligned Shiite Coordination Framework and the Badr Organization.

Iran has opposed the development road project, arguing that it could negatively impact its economic and strategic interests. Accordingly, some sources have linked the Iraqi Minister of Transport’s initial resistance to signing the agreement to Iran’s position on the project.

However, the Iraqi Minister has not provided an official explanation for his initial refusal to sign the agreement.