Al-Nujaba leader rejects US pressure over Iraqi oil

Shafaq News- Baghdad

The head of Harakat al-Nujaba, an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed faction, on Sunday rejected arguments that Baghdad should bow to US demands concerning the country's armed factions, insisting that Iraq is a sovereign state free to sell its oil to whomever it chooses.

Akram al-Kaabi said unnamed figures had justified complying with US pressure over the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and allied armed groups because revenue from Iraqi oil sales is held by the United States, giving Washington leverage over Baghdad.

“How could a sovereign country accept placing its economy and finances under foreign control?” he questioned, arguing that Iraq had freed itself from the constraints once imposed on its oil revenue and now sets its own terms, saying the country "has full freedom to determine the parties and mechanisms for selling its oil."

That claim refers to Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the enforcement provisions under which Iraq was placed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The measures subjected Iraqi oil sales and revenue to international oversight; the UN Security Council lifted the last of them in 2022, restoring full Iraqi control over the sector.

Read more: Iraq's oil revenues under US financial guard 23 years after invasion

He also criticized a statement by the US secretary of state describing American investments in Iraq as part of US national security, calling silence on such remarks unacceptable. Al-Kaabi characterized US investment in Iraq as a cover for extracting the country's resources, and cast opposition to it as a core duty of Iraq's armed factions.