Iraq’s Oil Minister, Hayan Abdul-Ghani, revealed on Sunday that Iranian oil tankers used falsified Iraqi paperwork to bypass US sanctions.
Abdul-Ghani told state media that Iraq informed the United States that the documents were fraudulent and had no official connection to Iraq.
The US has reimposed stringent sanctions on Iran, aiming to block its oil exports and isolate the country economically, in a bid to hinder Iran’s nuclear weapon development, according to Reuters.
When asked about the possibility of Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) facing sanctions for violating US regulations on Iranian oil, Abdul-Ghani said he had not received any official written notices. However, he had been contacted verbally regarding oil tankers detained by US naval forces in the Gulf, which were found to be using false Iraqi maritime records.
Abdul-Ghani confirmed that these tankers were Iranian and disclosed the issue to the relevant authorities. He stated that a number of traders were behind the fraudulent scheme and emphasized that SOMO only sells oil to companies with refineries.