Attacks on US brands in Iraq send ‘wrong signal’: Chamber of Commerce

WASHINGTON DC - The United States Chamber of Commerce is “very troubled” about recent attacks on businesses linked to American brands in Baghdad and fears they may deter investment, the body’s vice president said on Thursday.

“We are very troubled by this and we're very concerned for those Iraqis who are working in those companies,” Steve Lutes, vice president for Middle East Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told Rudaw.

This past week, armed men carried out attacks on a number of businesses linked to American and British companies, including KFC and Caterpillar, in Baghdad. The attacks were driven by anger over US support for Israel in its war in Gaza.

“When you look at these attacks that are happening in Iraq, it's only hurting Iraq's citizens who are employed at these companies, and that is very, very unfortunate,” said Lutes.

He believes these incidents, as well as attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthis, will deter investment in the region.

“Going on probably two years, we've been talking about how Iraq's transformed, and you really are having a much more stable security environment in Iraq. So anything that undermines that is unfortunate and sending the wrong signal,” he said.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry on Wednesday the arrest of assailants accused of carrying out the attacks.

Lutes said the US Chamber of Commerce welcomed steps taken by the Iraqi government to end these attacks and arrest perpetrators. “We also are glad to see that people like the Prime Minister Sudani… have voiced their concerns and certainly are not supportive of this.”

“I would say also that companies, at the end of the day, are very sophisticated and know that this is hopefully something that's just very temporary, very specifically targeted. So across a lot of different sectors of potential investment and current investment, they're not impacted by this,” he added.

On Wednesday US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller called on the Iraqi government to take “appropriate measures” against the assailants.

“Whenever attacks like these are carried out, whoever the perpetrator is, it is appropriate that those individuals be held accountable. And in this case, that's what the Iraqi Government is doing, and we want to see them continue to do it,” Miller said at a press briefing in response to a question from Rudaw.