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| - The Biden administration renewed a 2018 sanctions waiver for Iraq on Nov. 7, 2024, allowing Iraq to continue to purchase energy from Iran.
The Biden administration did not grant Iran $10 billion in sanctions relief out of the blue.
On Dec. 10 and 11, 2024, conservative news outlets reported that U.S. President Joe Biden's administration had "granted Iran $10 billion in sanctions relief." Early reports appeared in The Washington Free Beacon and Breitbart, with the claim making its way onto X on media personality Laura Loomer's profile (archived).
(X user @LauraLoomer)
However, while it is true that the Biden administration renewed a sanctions waiver on Nov. 7 that allowed Iran to continue to access escrow accounts holding profits from energy sales to Iraq, it is misleading to say that the administration "granted" the Iranian government any money with this act. Therefore, we have rated the truth of this claim as mixture.
Iraq Energy Waiver Has Been Renewed 23 Times, Beginning With Trump Administration
During a Dec. 3 press briefing, Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson of the U.S. State Department, told reporters:
On November 7th, the department did renew Iraq's electricity waiver for the 23rd time since 2018. It was done so for an additional 120 days. We remain committed to reducing Iran's malign influence in the region. Our viewpoint is that a stable, sovereign, and secure Iraq is critical to these efforts. Since 2018 — as you know, this started in the previous administration — the State Department has permitted Iraq to purchase Iranian electricity while Iraq continues to develop its own domestic generation capacity.
This waiver stemmed from U.S. sanctions reimposed on Iran in 2018 following then-President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran.
In connection with these sanctions, Iraq was issued a 45-day waiver to allow it to continue to purchase natural gas and electricity from neighboring Iran. The waiver was explained in a video on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad's Facebook page.
It has previously been renewed under both the Trump and Biden administrations. The November 2024 renewal will mean the waiver lasts until March 2025, continuing into the early months of the incoming Trump administration.
$10B Figure Stems from Iraq Energy Purchases, Not US Grant
The source of the $10 billion figure, which reports claimed were "granted" to Iran, remains unclear. However, the use of "granted" in relation to the money is misleading — the Biden administration did not pay any money to the Iranian government in its Nov. 7 waiver renewal.
Snopes first found the figure in reporting in Persian and English from July 2023. Iran International, based in London, and Fars News Agency, which is managed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), both reported that $10 billion — debts owed to Iran for energy sales to Iraq — was made available to Iran in an Iraqi bank, under the above mentioned waiver for the purchase of non-sanctioned goods. The figure was also reported by The Associated Press in November 2023.
A similar transfer of around $2.76 billion occurred in June 2023, according to Reuters.
Speaking at the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on Dec. 13, 2023, Abram Paley, deputy special envoy to Iran, said of the money owed to Iran under the ongoing Iraq energy waiver:
No money has been or will be permitted to enter Iran and any notion of the contrary is false. These funds can only be used for the purchase of food, agricultural commodities, medicine, medical devices and other non-sanctioned transactions.
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