The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Thursday targeting Iraq’s deputy oil minister and Iran-backed militias.
The U.S. Treasury Department alleged that Ali Maarij Al-Bahadly, the Iraqi official, “abuses his position to facilitate the diversion of oil to be sold for the benefit of the Iranian regime and its proxy militias in Iraq.”
Maarij is accused, over years in oil-related official positions, of being “instrumental in facilitating the diversion of Iraqi oil products to benefit known Iran-affiliated oil smuggler Salim Ahmed Said, as well as Iran-backed terrorist militia Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq.”
In March, Hayan Abdel-Ghani, Iraq’s oil minister, said that Iranian oil tankers, which U.S. naval forces halted in the Gulf, were using forged Iraqi documents. The Treasury Department said that Said who was responsible for installing Maarij in his government position, ran the operation and benefited from Maarij’s complicity.
Three senior leaders of Kata’ib Sayyid Al-Shuhada and Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq were also designated.
“Like a rogue gang, the Iranian regime is pillaging resources that rightfully belong to the Iraqi people,” stated Scott Bessent, the U.S. treasury secretary
“Treasury will not stand idly by as Iran’s military exploits Iraqi oil to fund terrorism against the United States and our partners,” he stated.
On Wednesday, a senior State Department official said that the United States has made its expectations clear to the new Iraqi government, which Ali al-Zaidi, prime minister-designate, is forming.
“There is a very blurry line right now between the Iraqi state and these militias, and it would start with expelling terrorist militias from any state institution, cutting off their support from the Iraqi budget” and “denying salary payments to these militia fighters,” the official said.
“Those are the type of concrete actions that would give us confidence and say that there’s a new mindset,” the official said.
The official added that “certain elements of the Iraqi state have continued to provide political, financial and operational cover for these very terrorist militias.”
“I’m not underestimating the severity of the challenge or what it would take to disentangle these relationships,” the official added. “It could start with a clear and unambiguous statement of policy that the terrorist militias are not part of the Iraqi state.”
