Aرث News / The US ambassador to Iraq, Elena Romanowski, confirmed on Tuesday that her country’s measures towards the dollar were not designed in any way to be political, but were designed in agreement with the Central Bank of Iraq to stand up to money laundering and focus on the anti-corruption agenda.
Romanowski said in a statement followed by Earth News that the implementation of these measures was a coincidence shortly after Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa Al-Sudani took office, while revealing forward with the Central Bank of Iraq to consider finding some ways to address the effects of the exchange rate.
She added, “She would like to clarify a very specific issue, especially since many are not specialized in the details of the global banking sector or money laundering, but at the outset I would like to point out that the United States does not set the exchange rate between the Iraqi dinar and the US dollar, nor have we put any new sanctions on new Iraqi banks.”
She added that “what he did was continue the mechanism that took several years to strengthen the Iraqi banking sector to help other banks in Iraq comply with the global banking system, and ensure that the system is neutralized (prevented) from using the system by criminals and malicious money laundering parties. These funds belong to the Iraqi people and are smuggled out of Iraq.”
She explained that “these measures were carried out by her country about two years ago, and they were gradually implemented by banks and agreed upon by the US Federal Bank and the Central Bank of Iraq.”
On the possibility of Washington helping the Sudanese temporarily postpone the implementation of these measures, she said, “It would like to clarify the confusion about those measures, which have been developed over a long time, and are designed to prevent money laundering. If we suspend or raise them, this means turning the system back,” adding that “what it is doing is continuing the close dialogue with the Central Bank of
She pointed out that “after putting in place these regulatory procedures, it is considered on transactions that go outside the country and a lot of money is transferred through the informal banking system, and so you can see the variation and fluctuation in the exchange rate, and unfortunately sometimes it touches that ordinary citizen who needs dollars to make his normal purchases.”
“They will go this area for a few time with the Central Bank of Iraq to see some ways to address some of these impacts,” she concluded.
السفيرة الاميركية: إجراءات واشنطن تجاه الدولار تمت بالاتفاق مع البنك المركزي العراقي