2023-11-15T05:01:07+00:00
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/ The United States of America announced that it has extended for four months the exemption period granted to Iraq from sanctions related to dealing with Iran, allowing Baghdad to continue importing energy from the Islamic Republic.
A senior US State Department official told reporters, requesting that his name not be published, that “this measure will allow Iraq to use its own funds to pay the costs of importing electricity from Iran, which will be placed in Iranian accounts restricted in Iraq.”
He added, “Iran will not be able to use this money except for humanitarian needs.”
Due to the sanctions imposed by the United States on the Islamic Republic, Baghdad cannot directly pay Tehran for its imports of Iranian gas.
The senior American official explained that the total debt owed to Tehran by Baghdad in exchange for previous Iraqi imports of Iranian gas amounts to about 10 billion dollars.
To force Baghdad to pay its unpaid debts, Tehran regularly suspends its gas supplies to Iraq, which desperately needs these imports to operate electricity production plants.
Iranian gas supplies cover a third of the needs of electricity production plants in Iraq.
The exception also stipulates that a portion of Iranian gas funds be transferred to Oman.
This is the 21st time that Washington has extended this exception to the sanctions since 2018.
Although Iraq is an oil country, it relies heavily on Iran in the field of energy, as it imports a third of its consumption needs of gas and electricity from it due to its dilapidated infrastructure, which makes it unable to achieve self-sufficiency to secure the needs of its population of 40 million people.
Iraq currently produces 16,000 megawatts of electricity, which is much less than its estimated need of 24,000 megawatts, reaching 30,000 in the summer, while its population may double by 2050, which means an increase in its energy consumption, according to the United Nations.
The previous US administration, under President Donald Trump, withdrew from the nuclear agreement concluded with Iran and at the end of 2018 reimposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Because of these sanctions, many countries and international companies refrain from dealing with the Iranian government or even with Iranian companies for fear of being affected by the sanctions.