Iraqi politician blasts US control of Arab country's economy
A reputable Iraqi politician has denounced the United States's control of the Arab country's economic affairs that has been preventing Baghdad from clearing arrears piled up over unpaid-for Iranian gas imports.
Remarking on Thursday, Hadi al-Ameri, head of the Fatah (Conquest) Alliance in Iraq's Parliament, laid emphasis on the need for his country to grow economically independent of the US.
"It is a source of ignominy [for Iraq] to be controlled by a US Treasury Department employee. All [Iraqi] politicians should unite to realize the country's economic sovereignty," he said.
Ameri's remarks concerned the US's obstruction of Iraq's efforts to clear the arrears.
US sanctions on Iran have made Iraq unable to pay some 11 billion euros ($12.1 billion) that it has deposited in an account in the Trade Bank of Iraq for imports of gas and electricity from the Islamic Republic.
Washington has threatened to sanction Baghdad too in case the latter tried to pay up its debt in cash.
It was reported earlier this month that Iran had cut gas supplies to Iraq in a renewed attempt to force the Arab country to pay its debts for previous energy imports.
Later, it was reported that Iraq had reached an understanding with Iran to trade its crude oil for Iranian natural gas supplies as means of settling the long-running dispute.
Ameri, however, reasserted, "I call on [Iraqi] politicians to courageously announce our economic independence and our extrication from the thralldom of servitude [to the US]."
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