Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan found himself presiding over an Iraqi cabinet crisis moment during a signing ceremony held  at the presidential palace in Ankara. The incident was exposed by live-stream footage.

The ceremony, held on July 28, was designed to cement the so-called Development Road project, supposed to deliver a trade transit corridor that will stretch from Iraq’s Gulf coast to the doorstep of Europe.

The event was billed as a seamless display of regional statecraft. Instead, as the TV cameras of Turkish government media rolled, the ceremony stumbled into difficulty after the initial signing of four security and training memoranda. When the moment of contractural signing for the transit network failed to materialise, a visibly perplexed Erdogan turned to his aides.

‘Weren't there five agreements?’

Following the signing of the four agreements, an announcer was heard to say that the ceremony had concluded.

"Make no mistake. There were five agreements were there not?" Erdogan was heard asking, prompting his foreign minister Hakan Fidan to step onto the stage. Fidan was heard to say “hamse”, which means “five” in Arabic. Erdogan, who studied at an Islamic high school (imam hatip in Turkish), knows a little Arabic, albeit he needs a translator to talk to Arabs.

Behind the scenes, a high-stakes standoff was unfolding. Iraq’s transport minister, Razak Al-Sadawi, had baulked at placing his signature on the contract.

In response, Iraq’s PM, Ali al-Zaidi, immediately pulled his transport minister aside, asking: “Why aren’t you signing the Development Road agreement?”

“Let me text you on WhatsApp,” the minister replied.

“Come over here and sign it,” the PM insisted to his minister, prior to turning to his interpreter and saying: “Tell the president [Erdogan] that I have instructed him to sign it.”

The Turkish government’s official news service, Anadolu Agency, initially reported four signed agreements before swiftly updating its dispatch to reflect five finalised deals.

Later on, Turkey’s transport minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said that there had been a minor change to an article and that the agreement was signed during lunch. Photos shared on Uraloglu’s X account (@a_uraloglu) showed the ministers signing the agreement on a dinner table.

Shadow of Tehran

What lay behind the drama? The answer appears to be a highly contested economic artery.

The highway and rail infrastructure that are to link Iraq’s Grand Faw Port on the Gulf to the Turkish border promises to dramatically cut transit times between Asia and Europe. Yet, Iran is said to have long viewed the planned corridor with scepticism as the route could bypass its territory, thereby eroding its influence in Baghdad when it comes to Iraq’s deepening economic integration with Turkey.

Minister Sadawi is said to be linked to the Badr Organisation, an influential Shia political and military group with deep ties to Tehran.