The Iraqi government reveals the agenda of Al-Sudani’s discussions with Biden and puts in place packages to prevent the smuggling of dollars to Iran
The Iraqi government reveals the agenda of Al-Sudani’s discussions with Biden and puts in place packages to prevent the smuggling of dollars to Iran
2024-04-15 07:05
Shafaq News/ The Iraqi government spokesman, Basem Al-Awadi, revealed the agendas of Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani’s discussions with US President Joe Biden, which it is hoped will bring them together in a meeting today, Monday, in Washington, DC.
Al-Awadi told CNBC Arabia, “Our visit to America and our meeting with the American President does not only include the file of American sanctions on some Iraqi banks, but is broader than that and includes politics, transportation, money, and banking.”
He added, “Some of the measures implemented by the US Treasury were supposed to be implemented in the year 2020 in previous governments,” noting that “the US administration informed the previous governments that they had two years to arrange and establish a real banking operation in Iraq, and this was not adhered to.”
Al-Awadi continued, “The foundations on which the banking sector was built in 2008 resulted in an intermediate class, the class of money changers.”
He stressed that “Iraq can today rely on the Indian rupee, the Chinese yuan, and the Turkish lira as currencies for trade exchange,” pointing out that “an agreement has been reached with the United Arab Emirates so that trade exchange will be in the UAE dirham.”
The Iraqi government spokesman said, “Most of Iraq’s foreign debts, amounting to nearly 9 billion dollars, are to the IMF and the World Bank.”
He pointed out that “the government has implemented a number of packages to prevent the smuggling of dollars into Iran.”
He explained, “Iraq spends more than 75% to 80% of its import and export funds with China, India, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran.”
He concluded by saying, “There were demands from the US Treasury that trade should not be conducted in dollars, and therefore the Iraqi government worked to ensure that the currencies of our trading partners be used instead of the dollar.”
Yesterday, Saturday, Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani arrived in the American capital, Washington, on an official visit, where he is scheduled to meet today, Monday, with President Joe Biden, in addition to the Ministers of Defense, Foreign Affairs, Treasury, the National Security Advisor, and a number of American officials.
On Monday, the Iraqi Parliament recommended to Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani, who is visiting Washington, to complete the implementation of the strategic framework agreement in the areas of energy and investments.
The President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Nechirvan Barzani, also said that the Kurdistan Region is looking forward with optimism to the Prime Minister’s visit to the United States of America.
shafaq.com
