The government of US President Donald Trump revoked a sanction exemption that allowed Iraq to buy Iran’s gas and electricity, reported US officials this weekend, intensifying a pressure campaign about Tehran and complicating ties with an important US partner in the region.
The exemption was renewed by Trump himself in his first term and former President Joe Biden every four months for years and allowed Iraq to meet his immediate needs by buying electricity and gas used to generate her from her neighbor.
The decision illustrates how the new Trump administration is waiving foreign policy conventions that he himself had followed in previous years, sometimes generating anxiety in allies while seeking his geopolitical goals.
In February, Trump restored what he calls the maximum pressure policy about Iran, applying severe economic sanctions in an effort to prevent the country from developing a nuclear weapon, restricting its ballistic missile program and further reducing its influence on the region.
“President Trump made it clear that the Iranian regime should cease his ambitions for a nuclear weapon or face maximum pressure,” said White House National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt when asked about the decision. “We hope the regime places the interests of its people and the region at the head of their destabilizing policies.”
Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful and will not be forced to negotiate. For Iraq, the decision arrives at a precarious time, when the government in Baghdad is dealing with the agitation in the Middle East.
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Iraq, rich in oil, has improved its electric infrastructure in recent years, reducing the dependence of Iranian electricity. By 2023, Iran’s imports accounts for only 4% of electricity consumption in Iraq, according to the US embassy in Baghdad.
Iraqi Parliamentary Finance Committee Chairman Atwan Al-Atwani said on Sunday that Iraq intends to reach energy self-sufficiency, but that completing this task will take a few years.
After a meeting with the US ambassador in Baghdad, he asked Washington to reconsider his pressure policies about Iran, according to the Iraqi state news agency.
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A US embassy spokesman in Baghdad said the decision to terminate the electricity exemption was aligned with the pressure campaign over Iran.
“This ensures that we will not allow Iran any degree of economic or financial relief,” said the spokesman about the decision. “We ask the Iraqi government to eliminate their dependence on Iranian sources of energy as soon as possible,” she said.
