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Iraq
Iran-Iraq relations flourish despite US pressure: senior Iran official
2019-06-21
[Rudaw] Iran’s political and economic relations with Iraq are in their best possible condition despite US pressure, a senior Iranian economic official working to develop ties with Iraq and Syria said on Wednesday.

"Since 2003, we have experienced a noticeable growth in goods export to Iraq, to an extent that 33% of all our non-oil exports is to Iraq," Hassan Danaeifar, secretary of the Committee to Develop Iranian Economic Ties with Iraq and Syria said in the western province of Lorestan.

Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
exported just over 790 million dollars’ worth of goods and services to Iraq in 2006, Danaeifar said. That figure has now soared to 12 billion dollars.

Washington re-imposed crippling sanctions on Iran in November 2018 after withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, in May of that year.

Iran’s dealings with its western neighbor have since come under increased scrutiny from the American Treasury officials in charge of implementing economic sanctions on Iran.

Suffering from a long-term lack of investment in its national grid and increasing demand, Iraq’s southern provinces have relied on Iran’s supply of electricity and natural gas for more than a decade.

While the US has pressured Iraq to cut its energy ties with Iran, it has been forced to grant Iraq short-term exceptions. Four energy waivers have been offered to Baghdad since 2018 to allow continued imports of natural gas and electricity from Iran.

"Currently, our exchange with Iraq is in the fields of engineering, energy and tourism, and we are ushering in a new phase of cooperation and exports to Iraq," Danaeifar said. "Today Iraq is in a post-ISIS era and needs $300 billion for reconstruction. We believe that we have overcome the phase of exporting goods to Iraq; we need to think about joint production."

Danaeifar, an architect of Iran-Iraq relations following the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003, is a towering Iranian figure of influence in Iraq. He is a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, and former Iran ambassador to Iraq from 2010 to 2017.

US Treasury officials have frequented both Baghdad and Erbil in recent months to put pressure on Iraq to cut their ties with on Iran as part of the US maximum pressure on Tehran.

However,
some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them...
given Iran’s long term relations with the main political forces in Iraq over the last four decades, Tehran hopes to turn this challenge into an undermining of sanctions and an opportunity for trade.

An Iranian parliament analysis of US economic pressure said this week that while Iran is under pressure from US allies in the region, including Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, UAE , Kuwait and Bahrain, Iran "is using its close ties to the Shiite government of Iraq to circumvent the sanctions."
Posted by:trailing wife

#1  Iranian tourists visiting Shia holy sites in Iraq have slowed to a trickle. Kerbala is a ghost town.
Posted by: Chereting Pelosi1889   2019-06-21 10:02  

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