The United States has extended for 120 days a waiver that permits Iraq to purchase fuel from Iran without running afoul of U.S. sanctions. State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel noted that this is the 22nd time the waiver has been extended, so that Iraq can continue to develop its domestic generation capacity and create independence from Iranian energy.
“These waivers are short-term, and they are stopgap measures to provide energy stability. That’s ultimately what this is about, is we want the Iraqi people, as we would want in any country, to have access to consistent, safe energy, which is vital to so many civilian infrastructure projects, civilian establishments,” he said.
The United States has encouraged the Iraqi Government to take meaningful steps to accelerate efforts to wean itself from Iranian energy sources, Spokesperson Patel noted.
“And over the past number of years we have also seen that. Currently our estimates are that it [Iraq] relies on Iran for about 25 percent of its energy. Just a few years ago, that number was 40 percent. And in recent years we have seen our partners in Iraq double its capacity for its own electrical generation,” he said. “So we are seeing progress and steps in the right direction, and we want to continue to see a clear plan, including realistic and measurable milestones.”
The funds that Iraq has paid for Iranian fuel are held in restricted accounts outside Iraq and can only be made available for the purchase of humanitarian goods that benefit the Iranian people. “Any notion that these kinds of funds are being released to Iran is fake,” said Spokesperson Patel.
Earlier this year, after meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani at the White House, President Joe Biden applauded Iraq’s progress towards energy self-sufficiency and discussed future opportunities for cooperation to ensure Iraq becomes self-sufficient by 2030.
The renewal of the U.S. sanctions waiver creates the space necessary for Iraq to proceed along that path to self-sufficiency.
