Sadeqi Criticizes Iraq's 'Compliance' with US Sanctions Against Iran

Mahmoud Sadeqi, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, criticized the Iraqi government's decision to 'comply' with US sanctions against Iran's nuclear program. The Prime Minister of Iraq announced on Tuesday, August 7, in a press conference that Baghdad does not agree with US sanctions against Iran but complies with them to protect its own interests. Haider al-Abadi called the US sanctions against Iran a 'strategic mistake,' but explicitly stated, 'We comply with the sanctions to protect our nation's interests. We do not support these sanctions, but we act in accordance with them.' In response to these statements, Mahmoud Sadeqi tweeted that 'the Iraqi government owes Iran $1.1 trillion in compensation for direct damages from the imposed war, according to Article 6 of Resolution 598.' He added, 'The Iranian government has hesitated to demand this compensation considering the hardships of the Iraqi people; now the Prime Minister of Iraq, instead of compensating, is cooperating with the oppressive sanctions against the Iranian people.' Following the announcement of the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, Donald Trump emphasized that anyone who trades with Iran would not be able to trade with the United States. The first round of sanctions against Iran, which began after the US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement, includes trade in metals, coal, automotive industries, and access to dollars. The next phase of sanctions, which will begin on November 4, will target Iran's oil industry. It has also been reported that Saudi Arabia has offered Iraq to meet its electricity needs with very cheap electricity instead of importing it from Iran. Musab al-Sari, spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity, confirmed in an interview with Bloomberg that Saudi Arabia has agreed to establish a solar power plant with a capacity of 3,000 megawatts (three times the capacity of the Bushehr nuclear power plant) within a year in Saudi Arabia and has proposed a price of $21 per megawatt-hour for electricity sold to Iraq, which is one-fourth of the price of electricity exported from Iran to its western neighbor. This contract has not yet been signed by the Iraqi government, but the proposed price from Saudi Arabia is very low, and the mentioned power plant's capacity is very high, accounting for about one-third of Iraq's total electricity production capacity. Iraq faces a 5,000-megawatt electricity shortage, and although several power plants are under construction, the country's electricity needs increase by seven percent annually. According to statistics from the Iranian Ministry of Energy, Iran exported about 7,871 million kilowatt-hours (7.8 terawatt-hours) of electricity last year, of which more than 84 percent was delivered to Iraq. This amount of electricity exported to Iraq could easily be supplied by a 1,000-megawatt power plant. In other words, Saudi Arabia not only set the price of electricity at one-fourth of Iran's but also proposed a volume of exports three times that of Iran. This month, Iran cut off electricity exports to Iraq due to domestic consumption peaks and shortages, leading to a wave of unrest in southern Iraq. Following the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iran has increased its influence in Iraq, and the two countries have extensive strategic relations in various fields. Although Iran and the US have hostile relations, both are among Iraq's largest allies, and thus the return of Washington's sanctions puts Abadi's government in a difficult position.