December 16, 2022
It appears that Baghdad has finally paid off its outstanding debts to Iran for the Iranian gas it has bought. Well, maybe.
There have been numerous reports over the years about payments being made that turned out to be ephemeral.
There is also a problem over the amount owed, which seems to change with every passing week.
Iranian Oil Minister Javad Oji said Iraq had cleared its debt to Iran with a payment of $1.6 billion June 20. Baghdad cited the same number and said it had paid off its debt.
But last year, Iranian newspapers said the debt was $5 billion. And various other figures, higher and lower, have appeared in print over the years.
The Iranian media almost uniformly said this was a great achievement for Iran because it amounted to a massive blow to US sanctions. But for years, Washington has granted Baghdad an exemption from sanctions because it knows how deponent Iraq is on Iranian fuel to power three electricity generating plants. The US pressed Iraq constantly to develop its own gas fields to get the needed fuel, but it has no problem giving Baghdad exemptions until then. Iraqi Electricity Minister Adel Karim said Iraq would need Iranian gas for another five to 10 years.
While Oji confirmed the $1.6 billion payment June 20 and said it was the entirety of what was owed, 12 days earlier Hamid Hossaini, a member of the board of the Iranian Gas and Petrochemical Exporters Association, told the Iranian Labor News Agency that Iraq’s debt had “surpassed” $5 billion. He complained that Iraq’s debt was mounting rapidly and that Iraq was doing nothing about it.
However, Hossaini was talking about Iraq’s debt to Iran for both gas and electricity. Oji was talking only about gas.
