Iraq Is an Iranian Client State, Lawmakers Warn

GOP presses Biden administration for a reassessment of U.S. aid policy and policy Getty Images

According to three Republican foreign policy officials, Iraq has become an Iranian client country that the regime uses for its money laundering schemes and sanctions evasion.

“Any holistic U.S. policy toward Iran must also simultaneously address Iraq as it is now, as a client state of Iran rather than continuing to pretend it is a healthy democracy,” Reps. Michael Waltz and Kevin Hern (R. Fla.), as well as Joe Wilson (R. S.C.), wrote in a Let me know Sent Friday to the White House, and obtained by Washington Free Beacon. The lawmakers are pressing the Biden administration to freeze out Iraq’s banking sector and cancel economic sanctions waivers that have allowed Iran to use Iraq as a hub for its money laundering efforts. This letter was sent to the Biden administration as an Iraqi delegation arrived in Washington, D.C., for meetings on economic cooperation.

“Now is the time for the United States to clearly communicate to the Iraqi government the consequences of its alignment with Iran,” These were the words of the legislators. “This policy must acknowledge the reality of Iranian influence and should not continue to provide banknotes to Iraq’s banking system or grant sanctions waivers that prevent Iraqi independence and enable further Iran-backed corruption.”

Just a day following the publication, the letter arrives. Free Beacon reported On a Republican-led effort by Congress to cut nearly half of a billion dollars in U.S. taxpayers-funded security assistance for Iraq as punishment to its growing alliance with Iran. Both of these efforts show that Republicans are increasingly agreeing that U.S. financial support for Iraqi is helping Iran avoid sanctions and bolstering Iran. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s paramilitary fighting force, is embedded at nearly every level of Iraq’s economy, fueling concerns among lawmakers and experts that U.S. assistance to Baghdad ultimately benefits the hardline regime in Tehran.

Waltz and Wilson claim that there is growing evidence to support this assertion. “Iran is using Iraq’s government and financial system to weather international economic sanctions.” These sanctions evasion efforts require the United States to end its long-standing policy of acting as an ATM for Iraqi governments, according to the lawmakers.

In order to confront “Iran’s exploitation of Iraq’s