Iran places 7 conditions on the new prime minister in Iraq
Baghdad / The Independent newspaper revealed that the future Iraqi Prime Minister, regardless of his name or the party that nominates him, will have to fulfill the seven conditions set by Iran, based on its economic, political and security needs.
The newspaper stated in a report that “usually, a lot of information about the Iranian conditions for appointing the Iraqi Prime Minister is not leaked to the media, because negotiations on this position have always taken place in complete secrecy between the Shiite parties close to Tehran, but that the Iranian capital is often It was the appropriate place to resolve any dispute over the most likely candidate to form a government.
It seems that the Iraqi demonstrations, which have been going on for more than three months, have changed many rules, including the formal circumstances accompanying the selection of the prime minister in Baghdad, but, according to observers, they will not be able to compromise the essence of the conditions governing this process.
Currency auction
In the forefront of the Iranian conditions for any Iraqi figure charged with forming a government, maintaining the laws governing what is known as the “auction of currency sales” in the Central Bank of Iraq.
Under the pretext of maintaining the stability of the Iraqi dinar exchange rate against foreign currencies, the Central Bank of Iraq sells large amounts of money daily from the US dollar currency, to traders who say they use them to import the goods that the country needs from abroad.
After the tightening of the American screws on the Iranian economy, specifically during the past year, the currency auction in the Central Bank of Iraq turned into the most important Iranian window for obtaining the dollar, while informed sources say that approximately $ 40 billion was transferred from Iraq to accounts abroad during 2019.
Iraq does not have a tight banking system, so money laundering operations are common, as well as the facilities smugglers get at Iraqi border crossings with neighboring countries, providing an ideal environment for smuggling foreign currencies.
Electricity contracts
The second Iranian condition that the new Iraqi Prime Minister must abide by is the maintenance of electricity purchase contracts between Baghdad and Tehran.
The Iraqi government does not provide clear data on these contracts, but informed sources say that it is centered around a thousand megawatts of energy sold by Tehran to Baghdad, in exchange for an amount that is very high compared to the prevailing prices in the region, noting that Baghdad does not get anything from this thousand megawatts during The summer months, when the demand for electricity inside Iran increases and the possibility of export disappears, yet Tehran gets its full dues from Baghdad, as if it had exported all of the agreed upon quantity.
In light of the scarcity of Iranian external resources, the revenues resulting from the contract to supply Iraq with electricity are an important financial source for Tehran.
Baghdad and Najaf airports
The Iraqi airspace is a vital navigational passage for Iran, as it is the link between its lands and its spheres of influence in Syria and Lebanon, so the Iraqi airports should always be open to Iranian aviation.
Tehran did not get rid of the headaches of Iraqi airports until the Badr Organization leader, Hadi al-Amiri, assumed the position of Minister of Transport in the government between 2010 and 2014, as he made a series of arrangements, which are still in effect so far, to ensure that Iranian aircraft pass through Iraqi airspace and airports smoothly.
Informed sources say that Iran has been transporting to Syria, through the airports of Najaf and Baghdad, for years, all that it needs to maintain its influence there, without hindrance. Therefore, maintaining this situation is the third Iranian condition for any new Iraqi Prime Minister.
International road
The fourth condition does not go far from the conditions of the third condition, but rather it relates to land rather than the air, as Iran wants the future Iraqi Prime Minister to keep the situation in the international roads linking Baghdad to Damascus and Amman as it is.
The sources say that the Iraqi militias allied with Iran have planted during the past two years about 60 monitoring and control teams along the international route between Baghdad, Damascus and Amman, which explains how to maintain support and support lines for the Popular Mobilization Forces stationed at several border points between Iraq and Syria, one of which is Recently bombed by the United States, and turned out to be a camp operated by the Hezbollah Brigades, Iraq.
Transfer visitors
Observers say that these four conditions are of strategic importance, in addition to three other conditions of lesser importance, but they are necessary to sustain Iranian momentum in the region.
The first of the three additional conditions is to maintain the system for transporting Iranian visitors to Iraq in its current form, given the significant economic benefits that it accrue to Tehran.
No one knows publicly the circumstances that compelled Baghdad to sign contracts to transport Iranian visitors to visit the Shiite shrines offered in Iraq, because they lose the rights of Iraqis and cut off all economic benefits to them.
Some of these conditions stipulate that the transportation of visitors is an exclusive process for Iranian companies, and that even feeding them is not the right of the Iraqi cities that host them.
Crowd salaries
The other condition relates to ensuring the flow of the PMF’s salaries in the current formula, with about 30% of them going to special accounts, according to associates of this force.
When the previous Iraqi government required its military and civilian employees to open bank accounts and manage the process of receiving their monthly salaries via smart cards, to avoid fraud and get rid of the phenomenon of imaginary employees, leaders in the PMF created a ruse to get around the issue.
These leaders supervised the process of issuing salary cards to all members of the Popular Mobilization Forces, but they kept them with them after they took their secret operating numbers, and at the end of each month when the salaries were deducted in the fighters ’accounts, they spent them and paid part of them to the affiliate and kept another part, which saved large commissions.
Informed sources say that this operation was carried out on the advice of Iran, which contributed to providing a good financial liquidity for the leaders of the popular crowd, out of the sight of the government or regulatory agencies.
The seventh Iranian condition for the upcoming Iraqi Prime Minister is to guarantee customs facilities for Iranian goods at the border crossings between the two countries.
Informed sources say that the more pressure the American economic sanctions put on Iran, the more the Iraqi border outlets will provide additional facilities for the Iranian suppliers to help them pump more quantities into the Iraqi interior.
Iraqi facilities helped Iran to overcome many cases of financial deficit, as the Iraqi market received more Iranian goods than its absorptive capacity.