Iraq rejects claims of smuggling Iranian oil following new US sanctions

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq's state-marketing oil company has dismissed claims by the United States that they smuggled Iranian oil through Iraq, as Washington sanctioned a Baghdad-linked network accused of the alleged move.

The US Department of State on Tuesday announced sanctioning “a network of companies and vessels” headed by Waleed al-Samarra’i, an Iraqi and Saint Kitts and Nevis dual citizen, for allegedly smuggling Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi.

Hours later, Baghdad categorically dismissed the allegations.

“There is no mixing or smuggling of Iraqi crude oil or oil products, whether in ports or within regional waters,” Ali Nizar Faiq, general director of the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), told the state-run Iraqi News Agency.

Faiq added that “all oil tankers are subject to real-time follow-up from loading until they reach refineries or importing companies,” adding that SOMO relies on “advanced tracking software, including the American company Kepler’s software” to obtain “accurate” information on tanker movements and “any unjustified stoppage is immediately monitored.”

Kepler is a data intelligence and analytics company that specializes in providing real-time information on global commodity flows, including Iraqi oil, by using satellite technology and shipping data.

In its Tuesday statement, the US Department of State said it acts “decisively to stem the flow of revenues to the Iranian regime for its destructive and destabilizing conduct in Iraq, the Middle East, and around the world.”

It added that the US would continue to use “all available tools” to counter “those who enable Iran’s illicit oil trade.”

In July, the US also sanctioned Iraqi-British businessman Salim Ahmed Said for using fraudulent documentation and ship-to-ship transfers to disguise Iranian oil as Iraqi, including through blending worth “billions of dollars” of Iranian oil. In August, SOMO denied the allegations.

The July measures came shortly after a 12-day war between Iran and Israel, during which the US struck Iranian nuclear facilities.

The latest sanctions are part of renewed US pressure on Iran following the reimposition of Washington’s “maximum pressure” policy in February.