it's me, iraq's banks are under pressure. the us treasury has imposed sanctions on more iraqi banks, claiming breaking sanctions when it comes to dollar outflows, especially when it comes to iran, so iraq has refuted those claims, more importantly. the us is holding iraq hostage to the dollar, money that it has rightfully earned. how it does that is one angle will be covering in this addition of economic divide. some of the headlines coming up, the us maximum pressure, sanctioning iraqi banks in order to squeeze iran's economy, that is the ultimate goal, why to prevent iran's access to the dollar. then we move to uh why iraq is opposing those us sanctions. obviously iraq is not thrilled by the fact that the us is control. it's money

flows a third of iraq banks are actually sanctioned, impact value of the dinar, iraqi dinar obviously is impacted by this, and then you have foreign investments also taking a hit because of it, then we move to the us stated goals, something that the us says in public that is partnering with iraq's financial sector, it also says that it wants to prevent iran's abuse as it sees it, because it calls it. actor, and it's not just iran that they're looking at closely. the us is trying to put a squeeze on iran's economy by sanctioning iraqi banks that give dollar service to iran. washington has imposed sanctions on an iraq. bank's owner

over alleged money laundering claims al-huda bank is a primary money laundering concern, serving as a conduit for so-called terrorist financing by iran. us treasury officials claim bank officials have circumvented limits on currency purchases and used forged documents to execute at least $6 billion dollars in wire transfers out of iraq. the us treasury has also designated iraqi airline fly baghdad and its ceo for alleged to supporting iran's irgc and resistance fighters. the sanctions freeze all property and interest owned by the individuals and companies in the us jurisdiction and prohibit people in the us from dealing with them. iran and iraq are trading partners. they have set a target of $20 billion annual trade and businessmen and authorities of both countries are determined to meet that target. the latest sanctions by the us on iraqi banks are aimed at disrupting trade relations. between

iran and iraq and to initiate instability in iran. time to take a look at some of the social media posts. first up this particular tweet from x where said iraq bands us dollar transactions in the latest move towards dedollarization, obviously that's very important for iraq. then another says the finance committee in the iraqi parliament made a statement calling for the... of oil and currencies other than the us dollar, the in of aim to counter us sanctions on the iraqi banking system, but we went into the website of that this belonged to where it said obviously that it wants to dish the us dollar in oil trade, and this was dated february the second of the month we're in, 2024. it said the iraqi finance committee opposes us sanctions on iraqi banks, siting money laundering as a pretext, the us treasury officials expect iraq's cooperation and identify. and

disrupting funds of iran-backed fanctions. that is the goal and the purpose of the us, zooming in on iraq so much. uh, further on, it said iraq's push for dedollarization includes diversifying cash reserves and reducing reliance on the us dollar economic transactions. we move on now to a website targeting iran, us tightens iraq's dollar flow, causing pain in recent weeks. iraq's currency has taken a plunge largely as a result of newly imposed measures that have. restricted dollar transfers from the united states, that is the classic case of the us controlling another country's economy, in this case an oil-based economy that receives dollars, hence the violation of iraq's sovereignty. all right, let's find out what our guest thing, let me introduce them for our first segment of the q&a. joining us is saad al-mutalabi, he is a former political advisor to the iraqi governments and member of the state of the law coalition. welcome to

economic divide, so the us is trying to put a squeeze on iran's economy, it's doing that through iraq, sanctioning iraqi banks um in order to control. the outflows of the dollars from these banks, but iran and iraq are trading partners, so how can it do that, and uh, at the same time, the ulterior motive being that it wants to initiate instability in iran by this move, reaking havoc on iran's economy, uh, restricting dollars uh coming through, even though it says that iran is sanctioned, part of the american efforts to control uh middle east and to... expand its influence in iraq, it managed to have a complete control on iraqi finances and iraqi transfer of funds from iraq to outside the world outside, and by doing so they managed

to boycot and blacklist number of private banks, by this they actually harmed the private sector, because these private banks were... an arm, economic arm of the private sector here in iraq, so by doing so they've uh definitely uh had a harmful way in affecting the private sector in iraq and the irak econ economics in general. all right, thank you for that. let me now introduce bruce gagnon. bruce gagnon is an activist and political commentator. bruce gan, welcome to the program. um, iraq is um, basically facing... these force sanctions by the us uh which has sanctioned a third of iraqi uh private banks from conducting dollar transactions. this obviously is going to have negative consequences uh on the whole like on the iraqi dinar, but it's going to also have negative consequence on the for example

foreign investments, which then brings about the question, isn't the us sacrificing iraq for its ill intentions, controlling the flow of us dollars to countries like iran, leban and syria for example, yeah, i believe so, i think the u.s. is sending very clear message to iraq that you either do as we tell you, or we will also destroy you, we will continue to destroy you, i should say, because us has been punishing iraq for many many years now, it's very clear that the united states is sending message to iraq that uh we're holding hundre billion dollars of your funds in our federal reserve banks, and we're only going to give it to you if you essentially remain as a colony of us, it kind of reminds me of

what france has done to many of the african countries that it has had a relationship with for many years where... "african nations were doing mining operations, and france was requiring that they put all of their earnings from that mining, when france would pay them, it would go into french banks and the french would then take, they would steal the interest on the money of countries like nige, so this is really the kind of relationship, it's a colonial relationship, 500." years of western colonialism we've seen in the global south, and this is what the united states is trying to do to iraq today, and it's just really, i think it's illegal, i think it's immoral, but it's a sign that this so-called

western rules-base order is nothing but a lie. in this week's episode of iran tech we've come to bucher city to the south of iran to tell you about what happens under that dome which is bucher's nuclear power plant uh and explain to you how we use a process called nuclear fision uh to generate 100 uh megawatt hours worth of electricity that is fed to the national power system thanks to the 80 tons of uranium that is stored within this facility. stay tuned, times are listed below.

section of the program, the way that the us controls iraq's foreign exchange oil cells, which is done in us dollars, is nothing short of an occupation and violation, to say the least, how can a country? that has occurred and how it has moved forward. this is the timeline. first you have the us treasury uh deposits where $2.5 billion dollars every three months is sent to iraq. then uh there are traceable serial numbers that the us territory is looking at, which monitors where the dollars are actually going. and then you have what the us has done, sanctioning 19 iraqi banks. why has it done that in order to uh control the dollar outputs? now we're looking at how the us has announced the rationing of us dollars, okay? it's doing

that again to control the uh dollar output from iraq. because of that, there's been a decrease in the iraqi central bank of dollar sales by 40%. imagine that, and then, well, that has affected dollar availability. a decline in supply means that there's a search in demand, right? all right, now moving back, uh, because of that, that is inected the iraqi denar. which has hit a new low uh 1,670 to the dollar. baghdad moves now to outlaw the use of dollar, not only for personal, but also for business reasons in order to not have the dollar impact is economy. it even went as far as uh allowing trade from china to be settled in yuan. okay, then we go to what the us treasury's aims are. the reason for all of that control is to stop the dollar cash flow to iran, syria. and lebanon. that has been the soul goal of the us. as matter of fact, just recently, aside from the 19

iraqi banks, the us has moved and sanctioned another iraqi bank and the us treasury visited the country in order to quote on quote do an audit on where the money is going. in attempt to prevent illicit activity from iraq's financial system, the us treasury department announced on monday that it had imposed bearage of sanctions targeting number of iraqi institutions. washington alleges these entities of engaging in money laundering, illegal transactions and supporting anti-us groups. these accusations echo a recurring narrative from the us and its western allies, often employed to strengthen their influence in developing countries. the us treasury on monday identified iraq's al-huda bank. as financial institution of primary money laundering concern, accusing it of serving as a conduit

for nt us financing. simultaneously, the treasury's financial crimes enforcement network proposed a rule aiming to disconnect the bank from the us financial system. this proposal would bar domestic financial institutions and agencies from establishing or maintaining a correspondent account for or on behalf of al-huda bank. additionally, officials claimed that the bank's owner hamed al musawi employed individuals to carry out the purchase of us dollars during currency auctions conducted by iraq central bank. in a related development, the office of foreign assets control has designated the iraqi airline fly baghdad and its ceo for allegedly providing support to anti-us groups. the airline has vehemently denounced the sanctions, saying that they were not based any material or moral evidence. baghdad said a statement that it will resort to legal means and will demand material compensation.

the airlines says the decision is grounded on misleading and unreal information that cannot stand up to the law. fly bachdad has a contract with the us due to his excellent performance. these accusations are unreal because we are under the supervision. they put us through checks four times a year. the treasury department's top official said on his visit to baghdad on sunday. that they will continue to monitor iraqi individuals, companies and banks. all right, as we heard in that package, uh, there's control by the us over the iraqi oil sales when it comes to dollars. the funds that iraq has accumulated from the oil sales is about $100 billion dollars. now the problem that is here is the us control. iraqi oil cells are deposited into one us account. at the new york federal reserve, one us account, all that money, which uh, the us disperses it monthly basis.

another restriction by the us, it restricts iraq from opening accounts for oil sales outside of the us, another restriction, total us control is what's evident here, and because of that, this is the conclusion that can be reached that the us is holding iraq hostage to the dollar, not a good sign of economy that is uh oil-based. let's bring back our gas to find out. what they think uh about all of this joins us right now, he is the former political advisor to the iraqi government. welcome back, when you take a look at how washington uh... makes this announcement that is partnering to protect iraq's financial sector, that's what it has said from abuse by the islamic republic or other maline actors in the way that describes it, but at the same time back in 2003, what it has done is to restrict iraq, as we just mentioned, all of its oil sales to go in the dollar, that's denominated in the dollar to

go into one account of the us federal reserve. i mean, iraq is supposed to have sovereign government. that they will only sell oil in in us dollars and this affected the opec and iraq is being member of opec and opec um iraq also is ruled by this order that oil is to be sold in on us dollars only and not using another currency

this also added to the problems of iraq not only. that iraq is forbidding from opening another government account internationally to receive the equivalent of the oil in us dollars and they have to the money has to go to us banks to the federal bank in the us then sent to iraq so the us has a complete control on iraq export, oil export, whatever iraq export of... oil, the amount, equivalent amount of that will go directly to the us treasury and not to iraki banks, and iraq has to explain to the united states why they need to transfer their own money from american banks into iraq, and that is another creating another problem, another hurdle and a

difficulty for the iraqi traders and the iraki private sector. indeed, let's uh bring back bruce ganon, it's quite unbelievable that the us has restricted iraq and that iraq has to comply with it, i'm sure there's got to be some kind of threat by the us on iraq on that uh, but don't don't quote me on that, let me bring back bruce gagnon, he's an activist and political commentator who rejoins us, bruce gagnon, welcome back economic divide, i'm going to continue with this line that we have here where um really iraq's sovereignty is uh is not there when it comes to its financial. and uh then economic situation visaes the oil sales and the money that it generates in dollars deposited into one account in the us, you can't even open an account outside of the us to receive oil sales, tell us the impact this has on on the country that is oil-based, not only its economy, but really the on the population as a whole. well, it's quite clear to me that

iraq is not a sovereign nation, in fact, on several occasions in recent year or so, iraq has asked the united states military to leave their country, and the us refuses to do so. well, isn't that an example of the loss of iraq sovereignty, and then top of that iraq's money is stuck inside of us banks and iraq.

states has undertaken with iraq and it must end in some way, so it's good that i frankly didn't know much about this until very recently, so it's good that people are learning about this, because it's just one more example of the arrogant entitlement of washington when it comes to countries in the middle east and in africa, latin america throughout the... global south, since 28. all iraqi oil revenues have been paid into an account with the us federal reserve. it is more than $100 billion dollars in reserves held in the us and relies heavily on washington's a good well to ensure its access to oil revenues and finances are not blocked.

all the irakis formed the sovereign government after the us invasion and occupation of their state. iraq is still restricted from opening accounts for its oil earnings. the iraki central bank requests its own dollars from the us federal reserve and sells them to commercial banks who in turn sell to businesses in the import dependent economy. around $200 million is auctioned daily. the us has already imposed sanctions a third of the iraki private banks from conducting dollar transactions. the move will have negative consequences not only on the value of the iraki dinar, but it will have very big impact on foreign investments, especially when it comes to his relations with. iran in line with us sanctions on iran, washington has tried to curb iranian access to us dollars in iraq, imposing enhanced scrutiny in 2022 of a central bank dollar

auction. hello and welcome to the quicktake section, i'm mattiaposion. the pressure that the us has exerted on iraq when it comes to the way. that it handles the dollar currency from oil revenues has pushed iraq into deciding that it would ban the use of dollars in its transactions. the announcement that was made was that starting from january 1st, 2024, iraq plans to prohibit cash withdrawals and transactions in us dollars. this decision is part of an effort to prevent the misuse of its hard currency reserves for financial crimes and to evade you. sanctions on iran, the move intends to combat the illegal use of approximately 50% of the 10 billion dollars that iraq imports in cash from the new york

federal reserve annually يحصل عليها العراقيين هي خارج النظام المصرفي باكثر من 70%, فلذلك انعكس هذا الاجراء على تذبذب الطلب على العمله الاجنبيه. وايضا دخول موضوع المضاربين وغسيل الاموال ونافذه بيع العمله التي كانت تdar لصالح uh when it comes to iran, the islamic republic provides iraq with electricity, which it is in dire need due to its dilapidated infrastructure after years of wars, especially with the us. just last year, iran's ambassador to iraq stated that the... government of baghdad owes tehron 11 billion dollars for the import of iranian electricity and gas. iraq has long complained about the us dominance over its financial system saying

that this harms its trade relations a minimum like with iran. both countries have agreed to trade in their national currencies to avert us interference and penalties. annually, more than 10 billion dollars of goods and services are exchanged between the two countries. "the trading system with the national currencies the two countries can contribute to the depth these relations, for example, the arrival of 3 million religious tourists to iraq, and the large number of health tourists from this country to iran can help in the exchange of dinars instead of dollars. iraqi pm and member of the finance committee in the council of representatives, hosen moinis said, it is clear that iraq is economically dominated by the us and our government does not truly control or have access to its own money, we believe that it is crucial to move away from the hegemany of the dollar,

especially as it has become a tool to impose sanctions on countries. it is time for iraq to rely its local currency. if you have any comments or questions, and that is it for this quick take section, contact info is coming up on your screens, i'm and i'll see you next week.

there's other way to describe the us actions concerning. when it comes to the dollar as holding the country hostage for its revenues. the us not only violates iraq's sovereignty through controlling how iraq spends this money, and in particular with which countries, it also violates his sovereignty through military incursions, as we have seen recently, and as for stopping the flow of dollars to iran due to sanctions. the us and eu couldn't even hold dollar exemptions when it came to iran on humanitarian grounds. so we'll leave that up to you in terms of how i wants to control iraq from doing that. however, dedollarization. is in the works between the two countries uh and beyond when it comes to any country's relation with iran. that is for this edition of the program. thank you so much for tuning in, we hope you enjoyed it. if you have any questions, comments or critiques, more importantly critiques, do send them to us. contact information is behind me. from we cover in the team, it's goodbye until the next economic divide.

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