White House national security adviser John Kirby said Friday that money from sanctions waivers extended this week by the Biden administration to allow Iraq to buy energy from Iran will not go to the country’s “mullahs.” Stated.
“This money will not go to Islamists. This money will not go to Tehran. The sanctions relief provided will actually go to the providers of humanitarian aid to the Iranian people,” he said. told Fox News White House correspondent Jackie Heinrich. Friday press conference. “Not only will the Iraqi people not suffer for this, the Iranian people will not suffer for this.”
“This will allow Iraq to keep the lights on without tapping into Iranian energy,” Kirby said.
The Biden administration came under fire Thursday for once again extending sanctions waivers despite repeated pushback from those concerned about the potential misuse of funds by Iran.
“Under these exemptions, no money is permitted to enter Iran,” a State Department spokesperson said in an email to Fox News Digital.
A huge mural of Iranian Supreme Leader Seyyed Ali Khamenei is painted next to a smaller mural of Ruhollah Khomeini on Motahari Street in Tehran, Iran, on March 8, 2020. A message on the wall reads, “America’s power, influence and dignity in the world lies in its destruction and annihilation,” and another slogan on the roof of the building reads, “We will stand to the end.” ing. (Photo by Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)
Biden administration comes under pressure to halt billions of dollars in sanctions relief to Iran
Referring to the $10 billion in total payments to Iraq held in escrow accounts, the spokesperson said, “The funds will go directly to trusted vendors and financial institutions in other trusted countries. “Never,” he added.
The extension comes just six weeks after three U.S. service members were killed and more than 30 injured in a drone strike by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq in Jordan.
Critics of the move remain skeptical, despite the administration’s assurances that the sanctions waiver prevents Tehran from directly accessing the funds.
Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said in a statement: “This exemption is a major cause for concern for the killing of three U.S. soldiers in Jordan and for subsidizing the nonstop attacks on the U.S. Navy and U.S.-owned ships in the Red Sea. It became,” he said. on Thursday. “Continuing to give Iran access to billions of people will only further accelerate terrorism, missile proliferation, and nuclear escalation.”
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi announced the release of five American prisoners of war in exchange for five Iranian nationals and the US government’s unfreezing of $6 billion in Iranian oil assets previously blocked under US sanctions. Following the September agreement, new criticisms of the exemption were raised.
According to recent reports, the United States is nearing a deal with Iran that would free American citizens held by Iran and slow Iran’s nuclear program. (Photo credit: Probst/ullstein bild via Getty Images; Photo credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)
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In his assertion in an NBC interview, Raisi said the funds would be used “wherever it’s needed.”
“This money belongs to the Iranian people, the Iranian government, so it will be up to the Islamic Republic of Iran to decide what to do with this money,” Raisi told NBC’s Lester Holt. “Humanitarian means everything that the Iranian people need, so this money will be budgeted for those needs, and the needs of the Iranian people will be determined and determined by the Iranian government.”
A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Thursday that funds generated from Iraq’s energy imports are held in a “restricted account” that “can only be used to purchase food, drugs, medical equipment, agricultural products, and other non-eligible items.” He said that it has been done. -Authorized transactions. ”
The spokesperson added, “There is no ‘sanctions relief’ in Iraq’s electricity exemption.” “The idea that this exemption would transfer funds to Iran for terrorist support or for any other reason is completely inaccurate.”
The Biden administration’s action would exclude about 6 million acres of potentially oil-rich leased land from future federal lease sales. (Getty Images)
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Sanctions waivers have been in place since the Trump administration first imposed them, as Iraq seeks to reduce its energy dependence on Iran.
Iraq has reportedly cut its dependence on energy imports from Iran by more than half since 2020.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
