‘’We have renewed this waiver for the 22nd time and is about the department permitting Iraq to purchase Iranian electricity while Iraq continues to develop its domestic generation capacity,’’ US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said at a press briefing.
Washington has repeatedly renewed a four-month waiver to Baghdad in a bid to help the country provide sufficient electricity to its people.
‘’It is a waiver authority that allows the purchase of electricity over a certain period of time, in this case, 120 days so it's permission for an activity over a period of time,’’ Patel told Rudaw.
Iraq is heavily dependent on gas imports from neighboring Iran to prop up its production of electricity. The waivers help Iraq bypass existing US sanctions on Iranian exports and are intended to act only as a short-term stopgap until Iraq is able to wean itself off of Iran for its energy needs.
‘’We have, over the past decade, seen some measurable steps of Iraq weaning off Iranian electricity,’’ Patel told Rudaw. “Currently, we anticipate that they are relying on Iran for about 25% of their electricity, a number of years ago that number was 40%.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken makes the assessment on whether to renew sanctions depending on Baghdad’s progress towards that goal of independence.
“[I]n recent years, we have seen Iraq double its electricity generation capacity at home,” Patel added. “So, we are seeing steps in the right direction when it comes to weaning itself off of Iranian energy, and we'll continue to be a close eye on that.’’
Nevertheless, a growing number of Republican members in US Congress have voiced concerns about Iran’s ability to access funds from the transactions. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Patel said: ‘’None of these funds from Iraq's purchase ever enter Iran.’’
‘’The terms of the electricity waiver. Any notion that these kinds of funds are being released to Iran is fake and the important thing to remember here…” Patel said. “[W]hat we're talking about is not a specific dollar amount. It is a waiver authority that allows the purchase of electricity over a certain period of time, in this case, 120 days, so it's permission for an activity over a period of time.”
Previously, the US government has said the money Iran makes from selling electricity to Iraq is not allowed to enter Iran; the funds are held in “restricted accounts and they can only be used for transactions for the purchase of food, medicine, medical devices, agricultural products and other non-sanctionable transactions.”
Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), allowed it to sell oil on the international market; however, when former US president Donald Trump quit the deal in 2018 and imposed biting sanctions, Tehran was forced to sell its oil at a marked down price.
