BAGHDAD: The United States has signaled to Iraq its willingness to extend sanctions waivers enabling the country to continue importing vital Iranian gas and electricity imports, three Iraqi officials said this week, a move that would be a key test of Baghdad-Washington ties.
The decision comes amid strained US-Iraqi ties following last month’s Washington-directed airstrike in Baghdad that killed a high-profile Iranian general and a senior Iraqi militia leader.
A previous waiver, granted in October, is set to expire on Feb. 13. The three officials said the US State Department, which issues such waivers, has conveyed its readiness to extend the waiver for another three months — if Iraq is able to formulate a timeline by the end of the week, detailing a plan to wean itself off Iranian gas dependence.
“The American side has announced to us their readiness,” said one of the officials.
The officials interviewed are all senior members of Iraq’s government, including one who is close to the negotiations with the Americans. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter before it becomes official.
Iraqi officials said the new waiver would be a test of Baghdad-Washington ties after tensions soared following a Jan. 3 US airstrike near the Baghdad airport that killed a top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani, and senior Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis. Since then, Iraqi Shiite political leaders have pushed a non-binding resolution through parliament to pressure the government to oust US troops from the country.
Washington has responded to Iraq’s requests to initiate troop withdrawals with blunt refusal, even threatening primary sanctions that could cripple Iraq’s economy. Tensions have cooled in recent weeks, with both sides stepping back from saber-rattling rhetoric. rival Iraqi blocs in parliament have also selected a prime minister-designate, Mohammed Allawi, to replace outgoing Premier Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
Iraq remains highly dependent on Iranian natural gas to meet electricity demands, especially during the scorching summer months when imports account for a third of consumption. Late payments by Baghdad for Iranian power and gas have resulted in interruptions in recent years. In the summer of 2018, that was one factor that lead to destabilizing protests in the southern oil-rich province of Basra.
The US waiver enable Iraq to avoid penalties while paying Iran billions of dollars for energy imports. It has been granted successively since November 2018, when the Trump administration re-imposed sanctions on Iran.
Washington has used the threat of sanctions as leverage to push the Iraqi government to build up domestic power supplies and reduce dependence on Iran. Iraq currently flares vast quantities of gas because it lacks the infrastructure to capture it. It also has two gas fields in Anbar and Diyala provinces but development of those suffered major setbacks after the Daesh group overran the areas in the summer of 2014.
The threat of sanctions had presented Iraqi officials with a difficult choice: end a vital source of electricity or be denied access to US currency. Iraq has billions of dollars in oil revenue at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. Oil accounts for 90 percent of Iraq’s state revenue.
The Iraqi Cabinet moved toward placating Washington’s conditions to renew the sanctions waiver in late January, by approving six oil contracts awarded by the Oil Ministry in April 2018 that would boost domestic gas supply in over two years, according to a Cabinet statement on Jan. 23.
The contracts were passed, “within the framework of the government’s efforts to enhance self-sufficiency in energy and reduce dependence on imported gas,” the statement said.
Iraq’s caretaker government approved the contracts, which would include fields that could produce over 750 million standard cubic feet of gas per day in 36 months, the statement added.
“We expect to sign soon,” said an industry official from one of the three companies awarded the contracts. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order not to compromise ongoing talks with the government.
US will grant vital Iran sanctions waiver: Iraqi officials
https://arab.news/cvqe3
US will grant vital Iran sanctions waiver: Iraqi officials
- The decision comes amid strained US-Iraqi ties following last month’s Washington-directed airstrike in Baghdad
- Iraq remains highly dependent on Iranian natural gas to meet electricity demands
Floods wreak havoc in Morocco’s farmlands after severe drought
- Morocco, where agriculture employs about a third of the working-age population, has seen seven consecutive years of drought
- We have no grain left to feed our livestock, and they are our main source of income
KENITRA, Morocco: In the Moroccan village of Ouled Salama, 63-year-old farmer Mohamed Reouani waded through his crops, now submerged by floodwaters after days of heavy downpours.
Farmers in the North African kingdom have endured severe drought for the past few years.
But floods have now swamped more than 100,000 hectares of land, wiping out key crops and forcing farmers in the country’s northwest to flee with
their livestock.
“I have about four or five hectares” of crops, Reouani said. “All of it is gone now.”
“Still, praise be to God for this blessing,” he added while looking around at the water.
Morocco, where agriculture employs about a third of the working-age population, has seen seven consecutive years of drought.
As of December, its dams were only around 30 percent full on average, and farmers have largely relied on rainwater for irrigation.
Now their average filling rate stands at nearly 70 percent after they received about 8.8 billion cubic meters of water in the last month — compared to just 9 billion over the previous two years combined.
Many like Reouani had at first rejoiced at the downpours.
But the rain eventually swelled into a heavy storm that displaced over 180,000 people as of Wednesday and killed four so far.
In his village, the water level climbed nearly 2 meters, Reouani said. Some homes still stand isolated by floodwater.
Elsewhere, residents were seen stranded on rooftops before being rescued in small boats.
Others were taken away by helicopter as roads were cut off by flooding.
Authorities have set up camps of small tents, including near the city of Kenitra, to shelter evacuees and their livestock.
“We have no grain left” to feed the animals, one evacuee, Ibrahim Bernous, 32, said at a camp. “The water
took everything.”
Bernous, like many, now depends on animal feed distributed by the authorities, according to Mustapha Ait Bella, an official at the Agriculture Ministry.
At the camps, displaced families make do with little as they wait to return home.
“The problem is what happens after we return,” said Chergui Al-Alja, 42.
“We have no grain left to feed our livestock, and they are our main source of income.”
On Thursday, the government announced a relief plan totaling about $330 million to aid the hardest-hit regions.
A tenth of that sum was earmarked for farmers and livestock breeders.
Rachid Benali, head of the Moroccan Confederation of Agriculture and Rural Development, said farming was “among the sectors most affected by
the floods.”
But he said “a more accurate damage assessment was pending once the waters receded.”
Benali added that sugar beet, citrus, and vegetable farms had also been devastated by flooding.
Agriculture accounts for about 12 percent of Morocco’s overall economy.
The International Monetary Fund anticipates that the massive rainfall will help the economy grow by nearly five percent.
Authorities are betting on expanded irrigation and seawater desalination to help the sector withstand increasingly volatile climate swings.
While Morocco is no stranger to extreme weather events, scientists say that climate change driven by human activity has made phenomena such as droughts and floods more frequent and intense.
Last December, flash floods killed 37 people in Safi, in Morocco’s deadliest weather-related disaster in the past decade.
Neighboring Algeria and Tunisia have also experienced severe weather and deadly flooding in recent weeks.
Further north, Portugal and Spain have faced fresh storms and torrential rain.
