Taif Sami denies US terror-watchlist report
Shafaq News- Baghdad
Former Iraqi Finance Minister Taif Sami on Friday denied that she had been placed on a US terrorism watchlist or had left Iraq, after a senior US State Department official told Fox News that her visa had been revoked and that she was on the FBI’s terror watchlist.
Sami said she remained in Iraq and had received no court summons or judicial notification. She also rejected reports that she had been barred from entering the United States.
“What is being circulated regarding my inclusion on any US terrorism watchlist or classification on terrorism lists is categorically untrue,” Sami said, arguing that the claims were not supported by official documents from relevant US authorities.
Fox News, however, quoted Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs Dylan Johnson as confirming that the State Department had revoked Sami’s visa. The report said she had been placed on the FBI’s terrorism watchlist, although the State Department did not disclose when she was added or what intelligence supported the decision.
Sami said she had previously travelled to Washington for meetings with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank while in office and had no plans to visit after her retirement. She said she would pursue legal action against anyone she found to have deliberately spread false information about her.
Separately, former Finance Ministry Undersecretary Masoud Haider accused Sami of “mismanaging Iraq’s finances” during her tenure, saying she had left the country with more than 200 trillion IQD (about $153 billion) in debt and had “wasted” more than $140 billion.
طيف سامي يجب ان تحاكم من قبل القضاء العراقي لكونها افشل وزير في الادارة المالية في تاريخ الدولة العراقية، حيث اغرقت العراق بديون اكثر من 200 ترليون دينار عراقي وهدرت اكثر من 140 مليار دولار امريكي خلال توليها وزارة المالية. والان على قائمة الارهاب الامريكية. pic.twitter.com/dz3pO8tvSc
— Massoud Hayder / مسعود حيدر (@Massoud_Hayder) August 28, 2026
Haider called for Sami to face prosecution, describing her as the “worst finance minister in Iraq’s history.”
The $140 billion figure has surfaced previously in a separate controversy. In July, Iraq’s Public Prosecution opened an investigation after a lawmaker cited earlier remarks by Haider in which he said “he did not know how around $140 billion in state revenues had been spent over three years.”
Sami served as finance minister under former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani from 2022 to 2026, after previously heading the ministry’s budget department and serving as acting deputy minister.
She received the US State Department’s International Women of Courage Award in 2022 for her work combating corruption and protecting public finances.
