Iraqi Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul -Ghani said that “Iranian oil tankers were detained by American forces in the Persian Gulf that used forged Iraqi documents.”
Abdel -Ghani was asked whether he had received messages from the United States about the possibility of imposing sanctions on the government oil marketing company (Sumo) because of its violation of the sanctions imposed on Iran.
“Some oral inquiries arrived in us that there are oil tankers held in the Gulf the US Navy and were carrying Iraqi shipping lists,” the minister said on the official television late Sunday.
He added, “It turns out that these Iranian tankers belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran and use forged Iraqi documents,” he added.
“We explained to the concerned authorities that Sumo is working with transparency and did not make any error in the oil export process.”
The Iranian Ministry of Oil did not respond to a request for comment.
The US administration re -imposed “maximum pressure” on Iran, in a return to the policy it used during President Donald Trump’s first mandate, which seeks to isolate Iran from the global economy and eliminate its oil exports returns in order to slow down its development of a nuclear weapon.
Iran believes that the role of Iraq and the neighbor and the ally is very important for its economy to remain steadfast in light of the US sanctions. But sources said that Baghdad, which is partnership with Washington and Tehran, is afraid to fall into the Trump policy goal to pressure Iran.
Reuters reported in December that a complex fuel smuggling network has flourished in Iraq in the past few years, including using false documents. Some experts believe that the network generates at least one billion dollars annually to Iran and its agents.
