The Prime Minister’s Advisor for Financial Affairs, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, confirmed on Tuesday that the White House will renew the Federal Bank’s authorization to deposit Iraq’s funds from oil exports next March, despite the fact that the Iraqi balances in the Federal Bank will be frozen.
Saleh said, in an interview with the Maalouma Agency, that “the reserves of the Central Bank of Iraq have been subject to the diversification rule since 2006, and represent the investment portfolio of the monetary authority.”
He added, “These reserves vary, according to the international standard investment guides for reserves issued by the International Monetary Fund, between various currencies such as the euro, monetary gold, the pound sterling, the Chinese yuan, and the Japanese yen, in addition to the US dollar.”
The Sudanese financial advisor explained, “These currencies are in different proportions, and according to the weight of the foreign currency in Iraq’s foreign trade,” stressing, “There is no objection to intensifying diversification into other currencies in addition to the dollar, which essentially represents the currency of oil revenues.”
He continued his speech, saying: “Based on Security Council Resolution 1483 issued in May 2003, the principle of accumulating oil revenues in an account for oil receipts at a global bank was approved, and the Federal Reserve Bank in New York was chosen for this purpose.”
Saleh stated, “This account was used to collect Kuwait war compensation amounting to 5%, and it was taken from the revenue from the export of every single barrel of oil or any products, if any,” adding, “The oil receipts account and the reserve account in dollars are still subject to protection according to the White House presidential order.” Which is renewed annually every year in the month of May.
He stressed, “Most of the issue relates to the aforementioned UN Security Council resolution regarding the oil receipts account opened in dollars at the Federal Reserve Bank.”
During the current period, America has worked to destroy the Iraqi currency by imposing sanctions on Iraqi banks and banning the dollar under many pretexts, which in one way or another led to a severe financial crisis in the Iraqi markets.
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