Today, the Kurdistan National Prayer Breakfast is taking place in Erbil, scheduled to last three days. The event brings together not only the three top Barzani figures in Erbil but also faith leaders from Iraq’s minority religious groups. This invite-only gathering hosts Western former officials, faith diplomacy practitioners, and “interfaith dialogue” specialists.

Context: The event is formally founded by KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and co-organized by Nadine Maenza, a well-connected interfaith dialogue operative with deep ties to American evangelical circles. Around 600 guests are expected, including 300–400 American figures—ranging from political insiders and Evangelical religious leaders to Western faith diplomacy figures and global influencers. This marks both the inaugural edition of this event and the first such national prayer day in a predominantly Muslim country.

Analysis: While the event may appear to be a routine interfaith initiative, a closer look at its structure, intent, and invitee list—especially when viewed through the lens of regional geopolitical dynamics—reveals deeper implications. The event closely mirrors the U.S. National Prayer Breakfast, an influential evangelical gathering first organized by Abraham Vereide, founder of The Fellowship. This organization wields significant influence within the U.S. Republican Party as it brings together thousands of lawmakers, foreign dignitaries, and lobbyists. The Fellowship famously held a prayer session during the 1978 Camp David Accords, which marked the first peace agreement between Israel and an Arab state. Thus, such prayer events carry not only religious or interfaith significance but also profound political and cultural weight.

There are two significant ways that today’s Kurdistan National Prayer Breakfast connects to the broader geopolitical remapping of the region:

First, it aligns with the broader trajectory of the Abrahamic Accord—a diplomatic initiative aimed at normalizing relations between Israel and Arab/Muslim countries. The Accord began with the UAE and Bahrain under the Trump administration and later expanded. Although the process stalled following the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, especially efforts to bring Saudi Arabia into the fold, recent developments have renewed momentum. The weakening of Iran’s regional axis—from Assad’s fall to Hezbollah’s diminished capabilities and the disarray among Shia militias in Iraq—has created new openings for deepening the Abrahamic Accord.

Importantly, the Accord is not limited to diplomatic normalization. It also encompasses a civilizational and cultural reconfiguration of the region, though themed around interfaith dialogue. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others have stated, this is a sweeping geopolitical realignment. This geopolitical transformation is accelerating, with reports indicating an increased possibility of Israeli strikes against Iran. The aim is to reconfigure the Middle East around a shared Abrahamic identity—expanding the post-WWII “Judeo-Christian” concept to include Islam. For the Middle East, the current vision promotes an Israel-centric, evangelical-friendly civilizational order through religious diplomacy. Evangelicals, particularly in the U.S., view this not only as a political project but as a form of theological fulfillment. Their support for Israel is rooted in eschatological beliefs and biblical prophecy, in which Israel’s restoration plays a central role in divine history.

The UAE, a leader in this domain, has promoted interfaith themes through projects like the Abrahamic Family House. Yet even the UAE has not taken as overt a step as launching a National Prayer Breakfast—a move that positions Erbil as a potential cultural epicenter of this new Abrahamic framework. To connect the dots: since January 2024, KRG Prime Minister and President Barzani have met with UAE rulers more frequently than with any other foreign leaders, including Turkey’s President Erdoğan.

The second connection lies in the identities of the event’s organizers. For instance, one of the key organizers, Nadine Maenza, currently serves as President of the International Religious Freedom Secretariat. Maenza completed two terms on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), initially appointed in May 2018 by President Donald Trump and reappointed in 2020. She has longstanding ties to U.S. evangelical networks and worked closely with former Senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum, serving as National Finance Director for his 2012 campaign. She later co-founded Patriot Voices, a grassroots evangelical group that supports Israel and opposes Iranian nuclear ambitions.

Maenza has also been a founding board member of Hardwired Global, an evangelical-driven religious freedom organization, and has worked with The Clapham Group, a Christian-aligned consultancy advising institutions on faith-based outreach. Her network includes prominent evangelical figures such as Gary L. Bauer (former president of the Family Research Council and Washington Director of Christians United for Israel’s Action Fund) and Tony Perkins (USCIRF Chair, 2019–20 and a leading evangelical voice). Maenza also serves on the advisory board of All Arab News, a Middle East-focused outlet founded by evangelical author Joel C. Rosenberg, which targets an evangelical readership interested in Israel and the region. Both All Arab News and its sister site All Israel News explicitly target an evangelical audience, “covering news and events impacting Israel & the Middle East for the Evangelical world.” Maenza’s advisory board position places her among other evangelical leaders shaping Middle East narratives for Christian audiences.

This event, then, is more than an isolated interfaith gathering. It is part of a wider Evangelical-driven geopolitical strategy—one that merges theology, diplomacy, and cultural power.

Beyond situating it within broader regional geopolitics, the Barzanis’ decision to serve as the launching platform for what might be termed the “Abrahamic faith” represents a bold yet risky strategic move. If successful, this could yield significant diplomatic capital and elevate the Kurdistan Region’s international standing, embedding it as a central node in the emerging Abrahamic alliance. From a purely pragmatic perspective, remarkable achievements often result from calculated risk-taking, though the long-term consequences could potentially backfire and further isolate the Kurdistan Region from its neighboring territories.