BAGHDAD: Iraq’s premier said Tuesday that new banking regulations had revealed fraudulent dollar transactions made from his country, as the fresh controls coincide with a drop in the local currency’s value.
Iraq has in recent months been making efforts to ensure its banking system is compliant with the international electronic transfer system known as SWIFT.
Referring to the new controls, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani hailed “a real reform of the banking system,” but denounced “falsified invoices, money going out fraudulently,” in particular as foreign currency payments for imports.
“That is a reality,” he said in an interview on state television.
The adoption of the SWIFT system was supposed to allow for greater transparency, tackle money laundering and help to enforce international sanctions, such as those against Iran and Russia.
An adviser to Sudani had said that since mid-November, Iraqi banks wanting to access dollar reserves stored in the United States must make transfers using the electronic system.
The US Federal Reserve will then examine the requests and block them if it finds them suspicious.
According to the adviser, the Fed had so far rejected 80 percent of the transfer requests over concerns of the funds’ final recipients.
Before the introduction of the new regulations, “we were selling $200 million or $300 million a day,” Sudani said.
“Now, the central bank provides $30 million, $40 million, $50 million,” he said, questioning: “What were we importing in a single day for $300 million?“
“There are products that were entering (Iraq) for prices that make no sense. Clearly, the objective was to take foreign currency out of Iraq,” he said. “This must stop.”
Money may have been transported to Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan province “and from there to neighboring countries,” Sudani said, without specifying whether he was referring to Turkiye, Iran or war-torn Syria.
He said the new controls had been planned for two years, in accordance with an agreement between Iraq’s central bank and US financial authorities, and deplored previous failures to put them in place.
Iraq, which is trying to move past four decades of war and unrest, is plagued by endemic corruption.
The official exchange rate is fixed by the government at 1,470 dinars to the dollar, but the currency was trading at around 1,680 on Tuesday on unofficial markets amid dollar scarcity.
The drop has sparked sporadic protests by Iraqis worried about their purchasing power.
Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and the new central bank chief will be among a delegation traveling to Washington on February 7 to discuss the new mechanism and the fluctuating exchange rate, Sudani said.
Iraqi PM says banking reforms reveal fraudulent dollar transactions
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Iraqi PM says banking reforms reveal fraudulent dollar transactions
- Iraq has in recent months been making efforts to ensure its banking system is compliant with the international electronic transfer system known as SWIFT
Tunisia jails critic of president for eight months: lawyer
- Sonia Dahmani, 56, was arrested on May 11 when masked police raided Tunisia’s bar association, where she had sought refuge
TUNIS: A Tunisian appeals court sentenced a lawyer and media figure to eight months in prison, her lawyer said Wednesday, over comments deemed critical of President Kais Saied.
Sonia Dahmani, 56, was arrested on May 11 when masked police raided Tunisia’s bar association, where she had sought refuge, following her remarks made on television.
Initially sentenced to one year in prison on July 6, she appealed.
Her lawyer, Pierre-Francois Feltesse, said the eight-month sentence was issued late Tuesday without her legal representatives being able to enter a plea, after the hearing was suspended.
The defense team said in a statement to AFP that Dahmani had been “subjected a disgraceful body search” in custody and forced to wear a “long white veil” usually reserved for women prosecuted for sexual offenses, despite no legal basis for it.
Feltesse said her case would be referred to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
The charges stemmed from comments Dahmani made on TV, sarcastically questioning Tunisia’s state of affairs in response to claims sub-Saharan migrants were settling in the country.
“What extraordinary country are we talking about?” she said at the time.
A judicial report said her comments referenced a speech by Saied, who said Tunisia would not become a resettlement zone for migrants blocked from going to Europe.
Saied, democratically elected in 2019, has ruled Tunisia by decree since a 2021 power grab.
He leads the race for an October 6 presidential election, after several hopefuls were barred. One of his two challengers, Ayachi Zammel, is in prison.
Decree 54, enacted by Saied in 2022, criminalizes “spreading false news.”
The National Union of Tunisian Journalists says it has been used to prosecute more than 60 journalists, lawyers and opposition figures.
Human Rights Watch has said at least eight prospective candidates had been prosecuted, convicted or imprisoned in the run-up to the election.
“Holding elections amid such repression makes a mockery of Tunisians’ right to participate in free and fair elections,” said the New York-based advocacy group.
Jordan’s Islamists bounce back in election clouded by Gaza war
- The Islamist Action Front (IAF), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, won up to a fifth of the seats under the revamped electoral law
- Under Jordan’s constitution, most powers still rest with the king who appoints governments and can dissolve parliament
AMMAN: Jordan’s moderate Islamist opposition made significant gains in Tuesday’s parliamentary election, initial official results showed on Wednesday, boosted by anger over Israel’s war in Gaza.
The Islamist Action Front (IAF) also benefited from a new electoral law that encourages a bigger role for political parties in the 138-seat parliament, though tribal and pro-government factions will continue to dominate the assembly.
The IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, won up to a fifth of the seats under the revamped electoral law, which for the first time allocated 41 seats for parties, according to preliminary figures seen by Reuters and confirmed by independent and official sources.
“The Jordanian people have given us their trust by voting for us. This new phase will increase the burden of responsibility for the party toward the nation and our citizens,” Wael al Saqqa, head of the IAF, told Reuters.
The election represents a modest step in a democratization process launched by King Abdullah as he seeks to insulate Jordan from the conflicts at its borders, and speed up the slow pace of political reforms.
Under Jordan’s constitution, most powers still rest with the king who appoints governments and can dissolve parliament. The assembly can force a cabinet to resign by a vote of no confidence.
Turnout among Jordan’s 5.1 million eligible voters in Tuesday’s poll was low at 32.25 percent, initial official figures showed, up slightly from 29 percent at the last election in 2020.
Jordanian officials say the fact that elections are being held at all while the war in Gaza and other regional conflicts are raging demonstrates their country’s relative stability.
The Muslim Brotherhood has been allowed to operate in Jordan since 1946.
Biden seeks ‘full accountability’ after death of US citizen in West Bank
- Turkish and Palestinian officials say Israeli troops shot 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who had been taking part in a protest against settlement expansion
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Wednesday said Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like the fatal shooting of an American protester against settlement expansion never happen again, calling her death “totally unacceptable.”
In a statement, Biden said while Israel has taken responsibility for her death, the US government expects continued access as the investigation continues over the circumstances of the shooting. Israel has said her death was accidental.
Turkish and Palestinian officials said on Friday that Israeli troops shot 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who had been taking part in a protest against settlement expansion.
Palestinian news agency WAFA said the incident took place during a regular protest march by activists in Beita, a village near Nablus that has seen repeated attacks on Palestinians by Jewish settlers.
Israel’s military said it was looking into reports that a female foreign national “was killed as a result of shots fired in the area. The details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was hit are under review.”
A rise in violent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank has stirred anger among Western allies of Israel, including the United States, which has imposed sanctions on some Israelis involved in the settler movement.
Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state.
Israel has built settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes that assertion, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.
US diplomatic facility attacked in Baghdad, no casualties, embassy says
- Two rockets had fallen at around 11 p.m. on Tuesday near US forces stationed near Baghdad airport
BAGHDAD: A United States diplomatic facility in Baghdad came under attack late on Tuesday but there are no reports of casualties and a damage assessment is underway, a US embassy spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.
Security sources told Reuters two rockets had fallen at around 11 p.m. on Tuesday near US forces stationed near Baghdad airport at the Camp Victory base.
“At approximately 23:00 on Tuesday, September 10, there was an attack at the Baghdad Diplomatic Services Compound, a US diplomatic facility,” the US embassy statement said.
“Fortunately, there are no reported casualties, and we are assessing the damage and its cause. Our assessment is ongoing,” it said.
Kataib Hezbollah, one of Iraq’s Iran-backed armed factions, said the timing of the attack was clearly designed to disrupt a visit to Iraq by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian that began on Wednesday.
The group called on Iraqi security forces in a statement issued early on Wednesday to investigate the attack and to determine who was responsible.
Pezeshkian, on his first foreign trip since being elected in July, is expected to sign a number of bilateral agreements with Baghdad and to discuss the Gaza war and the wider situation in the Middle East with Iraqi leaders.
Iraq, a rare regional partner of both the United States and Iran, hosts 2,500 US troops and also has Iran-backed armed factions linked to its security forces.
Iran-aligned armed groups in Iraq have repeatedly attacked US troops in the Middle East since the Gaza war began.
Israel army says two soldiers killed in Gaza helicopter crash
- The military said it was investigating the cause of the crash
- The seven injured had been evacuated to hospital for treatment
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said Wednesday that an army helicopter crashed in the south of war-ravaged Gaza overnight, killing two soldiers and injuring seven.
“An initial inquiry... indicates that the crash was not caused by enemy fire... Two IDF (Israeli) soldiers were killed as a result of the crash,” the military said in a statement, adding that the seven injured had been evacuated to hospital for treatment.
The military said it was investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred when the helicopter was landing near the southern city of Rafah.
The latest deaths bring the military’s losses in the Gaza campaign to 344 since the start of the ground offensive on October 27.
The war erupted after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures, which also include hostages killed in captivity.
During the attack militants abducted 251 people, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,020 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths.
The United Nations human rights office says most of the dead in Gaza are women and children.
