Sources: Iraqi file tops the priorities of Washington to completely exempt from sanctions imposed on Iran

November 7, 2018

Baghdad - Journal News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US State Department officials have told Iraqi politicians opposed to Iranian intervention in Iraq that the Iraqi file has become a key condition for Iraq's inclusion in the eight countries exempt from US sanctions, informed political sources said Wednesday. "This is what we learned from Americans and from officials in an Arab country as well."

On the US conditions, the sources said that "Washington calls on Tehran to lift its hand on Iraq and let it run its own affairs, and the resolution of at least 30 armed factions linked to Iran and working in Iraq and Syria."

While the Iraqi forces say that the armed factions included in the popular crowd is part of the Iraqi security system after the adoption of the popular mobilization law by the Iraqi parliament in 2016.

According to the sources, the conditions include "the return of the Iraqi army is the only force in Iraq that does not rival it and that the weapons are limited to the state." In addition to that, stop interfering with the security ministries and stop, directly or through Iraqi channels funded by Tehran, as well as stop interfering with the affairs of the financial sector and the Iraqi market. These demands include the Kurdistan region of Iraq. "

According to the same sources, the Iraqi government began two days ago to prepare a working paper in order to provide the US side includes the current situation in Iraq and the extent of damage it will face due to the interruption of Iranian energy supplies and Iranian gas, as well as the provision of agricultural and industrial products and construction of the Iraqi market.

The Iraqi government wants to reach an agreement to fully exempt Iraq from these sanctions, but according to Iraqi Foreign Ministry sources, the Americans are sticking to their terms before any exemption.

According to an Iraqi official, "Abdul Mahdi, is currently facing his first challenge as a government, using the advisers of former Prime Minister Haider Abadi, pointing out that these are still working in his office to help prepare a bargaining chip with the Americans, Baghdad in the coming period.

"What is required of Abdul Mahdi is to stay one distance from the Iranians and the Americans, but he stressed that it is very difficult now, as the Americans are pressing a lot on Baghdad on their relationship with Tehran and see it as a continued relationship and not a relationship between two neighboring countries.

The official stressed that the prime minister would not risk the rejection of US sanctions on Iran because it would hurt the country economically and could collapse the Iraqi dinar, which is still in a very fragile state.

"The Iranian regime must respect the sovereignty of the Iraqi government and allow the disarming of the Iraqi government," the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, in response to a letter published by the US embassy in Baghdad on the eve of the imposition of sanctions on Iran. Armed factions and their demobilization and reintegration ".


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