Iraq's foreign minister: America asked us to block more border crossings with Iran.
Fouad Hossein, Iraq's foreign minister, on Sunday, November 8, in an interview with Al Jazeera, announced that the US Treasury Department demanded from Baghdad, as part of Washington's policy to increase economic pressure on Tehran, to close all but two of the border crossings with Iran.
One of these two excluded crossings is located in the Kurdistan Region.
Hussein said: "There are many official and unofficial border crossings between Iraq and Iran, and closing them all would be difficult and affect our economy. "The Americans still want to close these crossings and we are currently negotiating with them." At the end of October, Iraq temporarily closed the Sheib, Chadaba border crossing in Iran, which is one of the busiest crossings between the two countries, in order to examine security measures and install inspection equipment to prevent smuggling, and Al Jazeera announced, citing an Iraqi source, that this action was done on the direct orders of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi.
The Iraqi foreign minister's statements about pressure from the Donald Trump administration come a day after the US military's central command, CENTCOM, announced the establishment of a new task force to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons, dual-use technologies and other items subject to sanctions through Iran's land borders and the Caspian Sea.
CENTCOM announced that this military-civilian task force called "Iron Gate" will be established under the command of Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of this organization, it will include about 20 military and civilian members and will be based in Tampa, Florida. This decision is a continuation of the naval blockade of southern Iranian ports by the US, which was implemented in two stages after the start of the war between the two countries, and Washington says that it severely limited the Islamic Republic's oil exports and sources of income.
🔸 The first phase of the naval blockade of Iran's ports began on April 13. This siege lasted until June 18 and was lifted after both sides reached the Islamabad Memorandum. The second round of this siege began on July 14 and is still ongoing.
Read the full version of this report on Radio Perda's website.