AFP: Washington is using Iraqi oil revenues to pressure Baghdad

A report by Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday confirmed that the United States is using Iraqi oil revenues to pressure Baghdad.

The report, translated by the Information Agency, stated that “the Trump administration has blocked a cash shipment of nearly $500 million to Iraq in an attempt to pressure Baghdad to dismantle powerful resistance factions. Analysts say this blockade threatens to further destabilize Iraq’s already fragile economy.”
Official sources told the Wall Street Journal that this is the second such shipment to be delayed since the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran in late February. These measures follow a series of attacks on US facilities in Iraq and neighboring countries, carried out by resistance axis factions to demonstrate their solidarity with Tehran since the beginning of the war.

Philippe Tourl, international affairs editor at AFP, said the attacks were widespread, with nearly a thousand drone strikes targeting Saudi Arabia, as well as Kuwait, Bahrain, and even the US embassy in Baghdad, which was evacuated several times.
The report explained that “Iraq’s oil revenues, estimated at billions of dollars annually, have been held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for the past twenty years.” Adel Bakawan, director of the European Institute for Middle East and North Africa Studies, stated that “since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the country has lost control over its economy and finances.”

Bakawan further explained that “if these funds were to go directly to Iraq, i.e., to the Central Bank of Iraq, every company and every country that won a lawsuit against Iraq would have the right to claim them.” Since then, the Federal Reserve has sent up to $13 billion annually in cash to Iraq to enable Baghdad to pay the salaries of its six million government employees and to run the country.

The Central Bank of Iraq, which has not yet commented specifically on the reports, announced that it is not experiencing a shortage of US dollars and that it “has fulfilled all requests from banks and exchange companies for US dollars allocated for pilgrims, travelers, and foreign transfers.”

Bakawan emphasized that “the only available currency is oil revenues.” “Oil revenues are deposited into an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. If the funds don’t arrive, salaries won’t be paid, and the Iraqi government will have nothing.”

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