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Why does the US control Iraq's oil revenues?
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<span class="field field-title">Why does the US control Iraq's oil revenues?</span>
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<div class="field field-field-text"><p>For more than two decades, <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/iraq" target="_blank">Iraq</a>'s oil wealth has passed through a financial system centred thousands of miles away in New York.</p>
<p>The arrangement, created after the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/us" target="_blank">US</a>-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, was initially designed to protect Iraqi oil revenues from creditors and help fund reconstruction.</p>
<p>Today, it gives Washington significant leverage over Iraq's access to its own dollars, leverage that the US is increasingly using as it pressures Baghdad to curb <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/iran" target="_blank">Iran</a>'s influence and the activities of armed groups aligned with Tehran.</p>
<p>The issue came into sharp focus in April, when Washington <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us-blocks-iraqs-dollar-shipments-squeeze-iran-backed-militias-wsj-reports-2026-04-22/" target="_blank">blocked</a> a shipment of about $500m in cash to Iraq as it pressured the government over Iran-aligned armed groups. </p>
<p>Muayen al-Kadhimi, a former parliamentary Finance Committee member, <a href="https://www.shafaq.com/en/Report/Iraq-s-oil-revenues-under-US-financial-guard-23-years-after-invasion" target="_blank">condemned</a> the decision at the time, calling on the government to end what he described as US dominance over Iraqi funds.</p>
<h3>Read more: Why does the US control Iraq's oil revenues?</h3>
<p><img alt="A man counts US dollar banknotes at al-Kifah stock market in Baghdad on 27 December 2022 (Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP)" src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/crop_16_9/public/iraq-man-counts-us-dollars-basra-2022-27-dec-afp.jpg.jpg?itok=FogCbhAe"></p>
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