ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi on Monday night held a meeting with US Special Envoy for Iraq Tom Barrack in which the pair discussed bilateral relations, regional stability, and enhancing cooperation.

"During the meeting, the two sides discussed bilateral relations between Iraq and the United States and ways to enhance cooperation across various fields," the Iraqi prime minister's office said in a statement. "They also discussed the latest developments in the region and ongoing efforts to support regional security and stability in ways that serve both countries' mutual interests and help ease regional tensions and conflicts."

The US diplomat, for his part, hailed the meeting as "productive" and expressed his gratitude for Zaidi's "leadership and partnership." 

"Stability is not inherited; it is built by leaders who choose the hard road. Iraq's security and prosperity are the region's," he wrote on X. 

With a trifecta of titles as the US ambassador to Turkey, special envoy for Syria, and special envoy for Iraq, Tom Barrack has emerged as a key figure in Washington's bid to shape a new regional order in the Middle East, with the businessman-turned-diplomat having played a salient role in managing Syria's transition under the leadership of President Ahmed al-Sharaa and the integration of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into the state apparatus.

Having secured the backing of US President Donald Trump in assuming the premiership, Zaidi has sought to oversee the shift in the bilateral US-Iraqi relationship from a security-oriented one to a broader economic partnership, coming as the US-led global coalition fully withdrew from the country at the end of September.

The US envoy hailed the withdrawal as an "opportunity for Prime Minister al-Zaidi and the Iraqi people to bring all of Iraq's armed forces under one state and one chain of command, with America as a friend rather than a garrison," referring to the premier's now-delayed efforts to restrict weapons to the hands of the state and clamp down on the power of Iran-aligned militant factions in the country - an objective long sought by Washington.

Barrack, in a separate X post on Monday, echoed Baghdad's view of the bilateral relationship's shifting nature, writing that it has moved "from a security-focused partnership to a broader relationship grounded in economic cooperation and shared interests."

As with Trump, who has termed Zaidi a "wonderful" premier with whom he shares a "tremendous chemistry," the special envoy has been effusive in his praise for the prime minister, saying in July that "what [the Middle East] responds to is strong leaders that have clarity, that have transparency, that have power that produces prosperity."