It can safely be surmised that whatever the new Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, told U.S. government officials during his visit last month to Washington went down like a lead balloon. This can be inferred from the fact that before his U.S. trip Washington had granted Iraq a 120-day waiver to allow it to continue to import electricity and gas from neighboring sanctioned Iran but just after the trip the waiver length was slashed in half. OilPrice.com can confirm from sources who work closely with Iran’s Petroleum Ministry that al-Kadhimi promised the U.S. that Iraq would reduce its ties to Iran in the coming weeks and months but that continued evidence to the contrary compelled Washington towards disbelief. In broad terms, the length of the sanctions waivers granted to Iraq by the U.S. for imports from Iran is inversely proportionate to the degree to which Iraq is perceived by […]