Iran has decided to stop supplying gas to Iraq

Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity announced today (Tuesday) that Iran has decided to stop supplying gas to the country, according to a report in “Reuters”. He added that the break was due to the closure of some of the production units and the interruption of load in others. This is a very significant move for the country, since Iran supplies between one-third and 40% of Iraq’s gas and electricity needs.

The significance is that 4,000 to 4,500 megawatts of electricity was lost from the power system as a result of the outage. “The Iranians sent a telegram informing the Ministry of Electricity of the complete cessation of gas supply due to unforeseen circumstances,” the ministry’s statement said.

Three government and political sources in Iraq told the newspaper that senior American officials confirmed in recent visits to Baghdad that the sanctions would be directed against parties involved in financing pro-Iranian activities. An official at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry indicated that the “black list” may include prominent figures from armed factions that entered the new parliament, and that the sanctions are a response, among other things, to attacks on oil and gas fields in Kurdistan and financial ties with “Iranian arms”.

The dramatic development stems from two unusual messages received in the last two weeks. The first message came from an Arab country that maintains good relations with both the United States and Iran, warning that Baghdad was dangerously close to a swift military attack. The message emphasized that the threat is “extremely serious” and that Israeli officials are now openly talking about receiving a “green light” from the United States to act unilaterally in the Iraqi arena. The warning compared the situation to an attack against senior Hamas officials in Doha in September.