Members of the US Congress sent a letter to US President Joe Biden at a sensitive time in the relationship between Iraq and the United States. In the letter, they accused a number of Iraqi parties—including parties in the Ministries of Oil and Transport, the SOMO Company, and others—of exploiting and smuggling Iraqi oil for the benefit of the Iranian treasury and the Revolutionary Guard.
These members criticized the inability to restart the oil pipeline from the Kurdistan Region to the Turkish port of Ceyhan and called for US sanctions against those involved.
In a letter dated September 4, 2024, the five individuals from Congress, Joe Wilson, French Slope, Michael Lawler, Michael Three step dance, and Kevin Heym, tended to the US president, saying that “Iraqi Oil Pastor Hayan Abdul Ghani will visit the US soon, as reports show that the Priest and different authorities are engaged with broad authorizations avoidance for the system in Iran.”
They asked Vice President Biden to prevent the Iraqi minister from attending events in the United States until the allegations are investigated and the findings are presented to Congress. If the allegations are proven to be true, US sanctions should be imposed on the parties involved.
The five members of Congress expressed their concern that “the Iraqi oil sector is being transformed into a powerful and sustainable means through which militia groups allied with Iran and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps finance terrorism,” noting that estimates speak of a $1 billion annual return.
In their letter to Biden, the members of Congress explained that these practices contribute to evading sanctions by allowing Iranian oil exports to reach the global market under the guise that they are Iraqi oil and by misusing the mechanism Iraq uses to gain access to the US dollar through oil sales, which also allows Iran to gain access to the US dollar illegally.
The letter additionally communicated worry that “senior Iraqi authorities and their families, remembering those working for the Iraqi Service of Oil and the Iraqi Service of Industry and Minerals, might be straightforwardly involved,” through the control of portions and oil carrying by organizations claimed and constrained by Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, while different reports show that Iraqi oil might be redirected from its expected modern purposes and on second thought pirated to the worldwide market, helping the IRGC and Iranian intermediaries in Iraq.
According to the report, the Iraqi government may allow Iranian oil to enter Iraq’s offshore oil loading areas, where it is mixed with Iraqi oil smuggled by “terrorists” and categorized as Iraqi-produced, facilitating Iran’s evasion of sanctions.
“Almost certainly, authorities in the Iraqi State leader’s Office, the Iraqi Service of Oil, the State Oil Promoting Association (SOMO), and the Service of Transportation know about and complicit in this assents avoidance system,” the individuals from Congress proceeded.
“Investigate and assess whether the Ministry of Oil, the State Oil Marketing Organization, the Oil Products Distribution Company, the General Company for Iraqi Ports, and any senior officials in those government departments, including Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani, have engaged in sanctionable conduct, or have caused a U.S. person to violate sanctions, thereby engaging in prohibited conduct,” the five members of Congress requested of Biden.
This manipulation “may have been developed and expanded during Minister Abdul Ghani’s tenure, and based on his knowledge and experience as a former director of the Basra Oil Company,” according to the letter to Biden.
The letter approached the US to guarantee that Iraq doesn’t permit Iraqi gatherings connected to Iran to pirate Iraqi oil or work with sanctions avoidance to support energy obligations to Iran that keep away from U.S. Depository limitations, something the letter said State leader Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had said he would look to do.
The letter proceeded with that this is going on while the Iraqi-Turkish oil pipeline is as yet shut, and the Iraqi Service of Oil will not return it, which straightforwardly influences oil trades from the Kurdistan District and influences $5 billion in American ventures, including from the “US Worldwide Advancement Money Enterprise.”
In this way, the five individuals from Congress required an exhaustive survey of these charges and three primary evaluations: first, to determine if these people or organizations have broken Iran’s sanctions, such as the Iran Sanctions Act or other measures; second, to determine whether there has been criminal activity in accordance with the terrorism-related sanctions; third, to determine whether the Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum (SHIP) Act has been violated. This law threatens sanctions against ports or entities that operate ports, refineries, and cargo ships that facilitate the trade in oil and petrochemical products originating in Iran. It also alludes to the Khor al-Zubair and Umm Qasr ports, as well as the management of shipping in Iraqi ports.
In conclusion, the presidency urged the US President to consider these requests and respond by September 30, 2024. It also urged Biden not to issue the Iraqi Oil Minister a visa to enter the United States while the Minister’s conduct is the subject of an investigation.
