Iraq would pressure US to renew Iran electricity waivers: Expert
A senior energy industry source in Iran says that Iraq would face major electricity supply issues if it stops importing electricity from Iran because of US sanctions as he insists that the government in Baghdad would increase its pressure on Washington to renew exemptions that allow the Arab country to import power and gas from Iran.
Seyyed Hamid Hosseini, a senior member of the Iranian Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters Union, said on Wednesday that Iraq would lose half of its power plant capacity without Iranian supplies of natural gas and electricity.
Speaking to the ILNA news agency, Hosseini said that the scenario would be a major blow to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani and his party’s plans to win a general election expected to take place in November.
“Given that elections will be held in Iraq in 2025, the power outages would seriously harm Sudani’s government and Shia parties in the country. Thus they are working hard to obtain a new waiver from the US,” he told the ILNA news agency.
“Experience has shown that the US would issue the waivers to prevent security problems in Iraq,” Hossein added.
The United States announced in early March that it had revoked a waiver from its Iran sanctions that allowed Iraq to pay for electricity imports from its eastern neighbor.
The move was in line with US President Donald Trump’s so-called “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran which seeks to force the country into political and military concessions by piling pressure on its energy sales.
However, Iraqi authorities announced last week that the US had not revoked its waiver on importing Iranian gas, saying that the exemption was still in effect.
Iraq relies on direct electricity imports from Iran for 4-10% of its domestic demand for power while natural gas imported from Iran is responsible for some 43% of the electricity generation in the Arab country’s power plants.
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Iraq would pressure US to renew Iran electricity waivers: Expert
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