Iraq stood by Iran when the storm hit it and today, when the choking reached its oil, he asks, "Where's the ally?"

There is a moment when political courtesy turns into a burden, and silence over an imbalance of interests becomes a form of concession of national dignity. Iraq finds itself facing this moment today. A state that, for years, maintained a political discourse supportive of Iran, and was careful not to turn its territory into a platform for targeting it, while Iraqi factions fought alongside it and paid a heavy price in regional conflicts. In contrast, when the crisis approached Iraq's oil and the artery of its economy, Baghdad found itself searching for arrangements to ensure the passage of its tankers and secure its exports through the Strait of Hormuz. And here the question is not: Were we permitted to pass? Rather: Why did the security of Iraq's exports become a matter of negotiation in the first place? Hormuz is not merely a waterway on the map; for Iraq, it is a route tied to oil revenues, the budget, salaries, services, and the stability of the state. Iran knows the scale of its relationship with Iraq. It knows the positions of the political forces allied with it, and it also knows that Iraqis opened their country's doors to millions of Iranian visitors during religious seasons, offering them food, water, lodging, and service. When Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited the holy cities, some Iraqis carried him on their shoulders and chants supportive of Iran were raised. But international relations are not measured by chants and images alone. If Iraq is asked to take into account Iran's security and interests, then Iraq has the right to ask frankly: And what of Iraq's security and interests when its options narrow? No one asks Tehran to abandon its interests, nor to do charity for Iraq's sake. But politics is mutual interests, and a true alliance is not a one-way road. Iraq is not anyone's strategic depth, nor a card of influence, nor a free arena for allies. Iraq is a state with oil, an economy, a people, a budget, and interests that must first be managed from Baghdad. And if Iran acts according to its own national calculations, then Iraq also has the right to learn the same lesson: no friendships without mutual interests, no alliances without balance, and no political loyalty at the expense of Iraqis' strength and livelihood. The irony that pains Iraqis is that Iraq's doors remained open on many occasions, yet when Iraq needed guarantees concerning one of the most vital arteries of its economy, it found itself facing negotiations, waiting, and calculations.