Savaya: Stabilizing Iraq requires dismantling corruption networks and stopping sources of fictitious funds.
Savaya: Stabilizing Iraq requires dismantling corruption networks and stopping sources of fictitious funds.
2026-01-20 22:47
Shafaq News – Washington
Mark Savaya, the US president’s envoy to Iraq, stated on Wednesday that achieving stability in Iraq requires dismantling corruption networks and stopping sources of fictitious funds.
In a post on the X platform today, Savaya wrote, “Reforming Iraq begins with decisively confronting corruption, which is the real disease, while militias are merely a consequence of it.”
He added that “corruption operates through complex networks that include lower levels such as relatives, intermediaries, and guards, which provide protection and denial,” adding that “these networks have persisted for decades and have succeeded in circumventing laws and international scrutiny, and have financially enabled Iranian-backed militias.”
Savaya continued, saying, “Any real stability in Iraq requires dismantling corruption networks and stopping sources of fictitious funds such as salaries, loans, and fake assets. Without that, any other endeavor will fail.”
In the middle of this month, the US President’s envoy announced a comprehensive review of suspicious payments and financial transactions in Iraq with the US Treasury Department and the Office of Foreign Assets Control, along with discussions of anticipated sanctions targeting networks that undermine financial integrity and finance terrorist activities.
It is worth noting that the US Treasury Department announced, on October 9th, the imposition of a new package of sanctions targeting Iraqi banking figures and companies linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Kataib Hezbollah, including “Al-Muhandis Company,” the economic arm of the Popular Mobilization Forces, in a move that it said aimed to “dismantle corruption and money laundering networks that enable armed groups to operate inside and outside Iraq.”
shafaq.com
