AJ
Iraq tells US: Stopping Iranian gas imports will cause electricity system to collapse
On Sunday, the head of the Finance Committee in the Iraqi Parliament, Atwan Al-Atwani, sent a letter to the US government stating that stopping the import of gas from Iran will cause the collapse of the electricity grid system during the coming summer in Iraq, indicating the need to extend the exemptions granted to Iraq in this regard after they were officially stopped by the administration of US President Donald Trump.
This came during Al-Atwani's meeting with the US Ambassador to Iraq, Daniel Rubinstein, and the accompanying delegation, according to the MP's media office.
The head of the Parliamentary Finance Committee stressed the importance of this visit at this sensitive time, and stressed the need for continuous communication to correct the course of Iraqi-American relations.
The statement added that the meeting focused on discussing the US sanctions file and their impact on the electricity sector, especially in light of talk about the expiration of the deadline for Iraq to be exempted from importing Iranian gas.
The statement also indicated that Al-Atwani conveyed an important message to the US ambassador to his country's government, stating that stopping gas imports would have disastrous consequences for the Iraqi people, especially in the summer, as it would cause the collapse of the national electricity system, due to the lack of any alternatives at the present time.
Al-Atwani said during the meeting that the Iraqi government is serious about achieving energy independence through several promising projects related to investing in associated gas, for the purpose of using it in generating electricity and achieving self-sufficiency, but these projects will enter service in the coming years.
Al-Atwani also called on the US administration to review the policy of pressure exerted by the US Treasury on the financial and banking sector in Iraq by imposing continuous sanctions on local banks.
He pointed out that Iraq has achieved a qualitative shift in the policy of compliance and financial transfers, and despite that, we are surprised by collective sanctions targeting Iraqi banks without prior warning and without any declared justification or even notifying the Central Bank of Iraq about that, and this has created a major problem for us and affected the work and activity of the banking sector.
In turn, the US Ambassador expressed his understanding of what Al-Atwani had raised during the meeting regarding the energy and banking sanctions files, and promised to convey these messages to his country's government in the hope of finding permanent treatments and solutions that would achieve the interests of the two friendly peoples, noting that the import of natural gas is, until now, outside the sanctions system, according to the statement.