Mazhar Muhammad Salih, the Prime Minister’s Financial Affairs Advisor, stated on Tuesday that the White House will extend the Federal Bank’s authority to deposit Iraqi revenues from oil exports next March, despite the fact that Iraqi balances in the Federal Bank will be blocked.
In an interview with the Maalouma Agency, Saleh stated that “the reserves of the Central Bank of Iraq have been subject to the diversification rule since 2006, and represent the monetary authority’s investment portfolio.”
“These reserves vary, according to the International Monetary Fund’s international standard investment guides for reserves, between various currencies such as the euro, monetary gold, the pound sterling, the Chinese yuan, and the Japanese yen, in addition to the dollar,” he continued.
According to the Sudanese financial advisor, “These currencies are in different proportions, and according to the weight of the foreign currency in Iraq’s foreign trade,” adding, “There is no objection to intensifying diversification into other currencies in addition to the dollar, which essentially represents the currency of oil revenues.”
He then went on to say: “Based on Security Council Resolution 1483 issued in May 2003, the principle of accumulating oil revenues in an account for oil receipts at a global bank was approved, and the Federal Reserve Bank in New York was chosen for this purpose.”
said, “This account was used to collect Kuwait war compensation amounting to 5%, and it was taken from the revenue from the export of every single barrel of oil or any products, if any,” clarifying, “The oil receipts account and the reserve account in dollars are still subject to protection according to the White House presidential order.” Which gets renewed each year in the month of May.
He went on to say, “Most of the issue relates to the aforementioned UN Security Council resolution regarding the oil receipts account opened in dollars at the Federal Reserve Bank.”
During the current time, America has attempted to undermine the Iraqi currency by putting sanctions on Iraqi institutions and prohibiting the use of the dollar under various pretexts, which has resulted in a major financial crisis in Iraqi markets.
