Al-Kadhimi: Directives to end the problem of Iranian gas flow

INA – BAGHDAD
 
Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi issued on Monday, new directives to end the problem of importing Iranian gas and re-pump its agreed upon quantities prior to the visit of an Iraqi government delegation to Tehran.
 
"The Prime Minister supervises, on a daily basis, the file of electrical energy supply with the aim to overcome obstacles, and during his visit today to the ministry, a meeting of the Ministerial Energy Council was held," said a spokesman for the Ministry of Electricity, Ahmed Musa, to Al-Iraqiya News TV, followed up by the Iraqi News Agency – INA.
 
He added, "The Ministry of Electricity confirmed the need to find continuous financial liquidity to support its work, and the Council of Ministers voted to allocate 500 billion Iraqi dinars to support the Ministry of Electricity's operational plan, and so far it has not been available, and the Prime Minister will discuss financing the operational plan for electricity with the Ministry of Finance tomorrow,".
 
“The above amount to be provided as of tomorrow,” directed the Prime Minister according to Musa’s statement.
 
Musa stressed that "the ministerial council meeting also touched upon the problems facing Baghdad-Bayji West line, and the implementation was referred to the Ministry of Electricity. We also put forward the necessary fuel plan. The meeting also touched upon the visit of the government delegation to Iran to solve the gas problem as in a matter of two days, the delegation will be formed with the membership of officials from the ministries of Electricity, Finance, Oil and the Trade Bank of Iraq to discuss the releases and pay the dues,”.
 
"Tomorrow's meeting of the Cabinet in its regular session will witness the presence of the Minister of Finance and with the payments allocated to repay the gas debts, and the director of the Fuel Center in the Ministry of Electricity will be hosted too, and the matter will be discussed with the Minister of Oil. There are signs from the Iranian side to solve the problem after paying the required payments, which total around $1.642 billion in 2020 because there was no budget and the ministry paid what they had during the past year,” he included.
 
He stressed that "Al-Kadhimi issued several directives to the delegation that will visit Iran, and we expect an Iraqi-Iranian agreement to allow the perpetuation of the flow of gas in a manner commensurate with the Iraqi need,".
 
"The meeting also discussed the issue of overtaking on electric power, as there are more than one million irregular users in Iraq," Musa noted.