dChan
Anonymous ID: c3724c Sept. 26, 2026, 7:51 a.m. No.25079462   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>25079367

 

https://www.facebook.com/PakistanTVGlobal/videos/israeli-ambassador-to-the-un-danny-danon-was-removed-from-the-general-assembly-h/1820241172302439/

 

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon was removed from the General Assembly hall after staging a solo protest during Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s address in New York, US. Pezeshkian criticised US and Israeli actions while calling for diplomacy and negotiations at the 81st UN General Assembly session.

Disclaimer: This video is intended for informational and editorial use only. All footage, visuals, and referenced content are the property of their respective owners.

#DannyDanon #Pezeshkian #UNGA81 #Diplomacy #PakistanTV

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Anonymous ID: c3724c Sept. 26, 2026, 8:08 a.m. No.25079491   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>25079479

https://thearabweekly.com/seeking-limit-irans-influence-us-threatens-starve-iraq-its-oil-dollars

 

WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD

 

Seeking to curb Iranian influence in Iraq, the US is said to have threatened senior Iraqi politicians with sanctions targeting the Iraqi state, including potentially its critical oil revenues, should armed groups backed by Iran be included in the next government.

 

Iraq, which has long walked a tightrope between Washington and Tehran, has received a warning to this end from the US, reported Reuters quoting Iraqi officials and “one source familiar with the matter”.

 

The US warning was delivered repeatedly over the past two months by the US Charge d’Affaires in Baghdad, Joshua Harris, in conversations with Iraqi officials and influential Shia leaders. The message was also conveyed to some heads of Iran-linked groups via intermediaries.

 

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani has also met earlier this month with US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack, in Baghdad. The focus of the meeting seems to have been on Syria and US decision to transfer ISIS detainees from there to Iraq, said analysts.

 

According to INA, the Iraqi premier highlighted “a constructive partnership between Iraq and the United States in combating terrorism” alongside cooperation on economic development, sustainable growth and supporting bilateral and regional efforts for prosperity in Iraq and the region.

 

Since taking office a year ago, Trump has acted to weaken the Iranian government, including via its neighbour Iraq.

 

The US president has pursued a maximum pressure campaign against Iran, with Iraq often caught in the crossfire as Tehran has used it as a vital economic lung.

 

Iran views Iraq as vital for keeping its economy afloat amidst sanctions and long used Baghdad’s banking system to skirt the restrictions, US and Iraqi officials have said.

 

Successive US administrations have sought to choke that dollar stream, placing sanctions on more than a dozen Iraqi banks in recent years in an effort to do so.

 

But Washington has never curtailed the flow of dollars from the oil revenues of Iraq, a top OPEC producer, sent via the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to the Central Bank of Iraq.

 

The US has had de facto control over oil revenue in dollars from Iraq, a top OPEC producer, since it invaded the country in 2003.

 

For the last 23 years, the United States has held effective control over the country’s oil revenue in dollars, giving Washington extraordinary leverage over Baghdad’s affairs, with implications for regional dynamics involving Iran.

 

Oil is Iraq’s most important revenue source, accounting for some 90% of the state budget. This gives Washington significant sway over the country’s economic and political stability. When the Iraqi government asked US troops to leave the country in 2020, Washington reportedly threatened to cut Iraq’s access to the New York Federal Reserve funds, with Baghdad ultimately backing down.

 

While the Iraqi government has gained more control over its financial affairs since the early years of the US occupation, the ongoing relationship highlights the enduring influence of the US on Iraq’s economic landscape, even as the country seeks to assert its sovereignty and independence.

 

“The United States supports Iraqi sovereignty, and the sovereignty of every country in the region. That leaves absolutely no role for Iran-backed militias that pursue malign interests, cause sectarian division, and spread terrorism across the region,” a US State Department spokesperson told Reuters.

 

The US spokesperson did not answer Reuters questions about the sanction threats. Trump, who bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, threatened to again intervene militarily in the country during protests last week.

 

Among the senior politicians to whom Harris’ message was passed were Prime Minister Sudani, Shia politicians Ammar Hakim and Hadi Al Ameri, and Kurdish leader Masrour Barzani. The conversations with Harris started after Iraq held elections in November in which Sudani’s political bloc won the single-largest bloc of seats but in which Iran-backed militias also made gains, the sources said.

 

The message centred on 58 members of parliament views by the US views as linked to Iran.

 

“The American line was basically that they would suspend engagement with the new government should any of those 58 MPs be represented in cabinet,” one of the Iraqi officials said. The formation of a new cabinet could still be months away due to wrangling to build a majority.

 

When asked to elaborate “they said it meant they wouldn’t deal with that government and would suspend dollar transfers,” an official said.

 

Iran has long supported an array of armed factions in Iraq. In recent years, several have entered the political arena, standing for election and winning seats as they seek a slice of Iraq’s oil wealth.

 

“Serious threat”

 

Renad Mansour, director of the Iraq Initiative at London’s Chatham House think tank, said armed groups were increasingly benefiting from positions in Iraq’s massive bureaucracy and so took the threat of cutting dollar flows seriously.

 

“The US has significant leverage,”‌ he said. “The threat of the loss of access to US dollars, which is how Iraq’s economy functions through the sale of oil, has made it very concerning.”‌

 

One of the people Washington objects to is Adnan Faihan, a member of the powerful, Iran-backed political and armed group Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), who was elected first deputy speaker of parliament in late December, the Iraqi official and the source with knowledge of the matter said.

 

They said the US opposed Faihan’s appointment to the post. In a sign the pressure campaign was working, AAH leader Qais al-Khazali communicated a willingness to the Americans to remove Faihan as deputy speaker, an Iraqi official told Reuters. Faihan currently remains in his position.

 

In the last government, AAH held the education ministry, and Iraqi officials say it is seeking to participate in the next government, too. AAH was a key group in a sophisticated oil smuggling network generating at least a $1 billion a year for Iran and its proxies in Iraq, sources previously told Reuters.

 

Khazali was sanctioned by Washington in 2019 for AAH’s alleged role in serious human rights abuses, related to the killing of protesters in Iraq that year and other violence, including a 2007 attack that killed five US soldiers. At the time, he dismissed the sanctions as unserious.

 

Iraq holds the bulk of proceeds from its oil export sales at a Central Bank of Iraq account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

 

Though it is a sovereign account of the Iraqi state, the arrangement gives the US practical control over a critical choke point of Iraqi state revenues, making Baghdad reliant on Washington’s goodwill.

 

“US efforts to achieve stability in the region are focused on ensuring states retain their sovereignty and can achieve security through mutual economic prosperity,” the US State Department spokesperson said.

 

The move to pressure Baghdad with a possible suspension of dollars takes place as the US begins marketing Venezuelan oil, which followed the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in Caracas by US forces and his transfer to New York to be put on trial in relation to drug charges.

 

The US Department of Energy has said all proceeds from Venezuelan oil sales would be initially settled in US-controlled accounts at globally recognised banks.