Call them the “Unlucky 7” ... the seven countries singled out by US President Donald Trump in his first 10 days in office. By now, if you are an avid reader of newspapers or a viewer of television news it is possible to reel off the names of those countries with little effort: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. All but Iran is either currently or has recently been faced with conflict on their soil.

But the question remains — are they a threat to the US?

The White House was quick to point out that the original list was generated by the Obama administration as “countries of concern”, but that classification never materialised into a travel ban until now. In that context, the decision raises of a number of questions regarding America’s ties with the Middle East and the broader Muslim world of more than one billon people.

Let’s start with Iraq, where US troops were on the ground starting in 2003. Both in an interview with ABC-TV and during a visit to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, President Trump said in retrospect the US should have kept Iraq’s oil after the invasion. He then went further by adding, “Maybe we’ll have another chance.”

His unguarded remarks implied potential further engagement in Iraq and prompted an immediate reply by Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi who said, “Iraq’s oil is constitutionally the property of the Iraqis,” while adding, “Anything on the contrary is unacceptable.”

Al Abadi’s comments were seen as firm and fair, but the Prime Minister stopped short of getting drawn into a tit-for-tat retaliation battle, despite a call from Iraq’s parliament to do so.

There is a great stake in Iraq. One Iraqi chief executive told me it is comments like that from President Trump that quickly erodes the trust of allies, particularly those that have experienced a series of ups and downs such as Iraq. For example, Iraq and the US are cooperating in the fight against Daesh in Mosul, and Baghdad is hoping the new administration will step up efforts to support a final push to drive the terrorist organisation out of the country.

Then there are America’s strategic business interests, which Trump touched upon when he talked about Iraq’s oil assets. The country has the fifth largest proven oil reserves in the world, some 143 billion barrels. As the CEO of ExxonMobil, the new US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made a big bet on the country. He entered into a $50 billion joint venture with Shell in southern Iraq and two years later, against the wishes of those in the Iraqi capital, pushed into the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. As a result, he later agreed to reduce ExxonMobil’s stake in the south from 60 down to 25 per cent. “I think there were some raised eyebrows when ExxonMobil decided to go into northern Iraq but the reality is it is a company that had the capacity and skill to get involved in both of those type of developments,” John Roper, chairman of the Dubai Petroleum Club, recently told me during an interview.

But there is plenty more to think about beyond energy assets. Many expect Trump to be a “transactional President,” one that takes a tough stance but is always willing to find common ground to secure a deal. His approach to business may not apply to geo-politics, where nuance and patience are highly valued.

Luay Al Khateeb of the Brookings Doha Center said Trump’s early days in the White House reminded him of his past role in the reality television programme “The Apprentice” and went so far as to say the President is playing mind games with countries in the Middle East, such as Iraq.

At this stage, both Iraq and even Iran are not eager to close the door on American companies. While Iran promised some level of retaliation to the travel ban, the country’s petroleum minister Bijan Zanganeh said US energy countries “face no ban entering our oil industry”. Iran has the largest combined oil and gas reserves in the world, but US companies have stayed away from the initial bidding process awaiting a final position from the Trump administration. It is clear, with nearly a daily offering of photo-ops with CEOs from various sectors, that the new President is eager to set a new pace for getting things done. He is signing executive orders and declaring a radical overhaul in business regulations to spur domestic growth. That is why there was a big rally on Wall Street. His challenge, from those I talk with in the region, is sustaining the country’s strategic business interests in light of his approach during his first days in office. US bilateral trade with the Muslim world topped $220 billion and was growing fast. Let’s see if it can be sustained in the era of President Trump.

The writer is CNNMoney’s Emerging Markets Editor.