Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz following repeated requests from Baghdad through various channels, according to Iranian state media. The IRNA government news service reported on Saturday that obtaining special permission for Iraqi tankers was one of Baghdad’s main requests during Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf’s visit to Iraq this week. Iraqi President Nizar Amidi said on Saturday that Iran had facilitated the passage of “some ships carrying Iraqi oil in the Strait” in recent days and Baghdad had discussed the export of Iraqi oil through Hormuz with Iranian officials.
Speaking at the Baghdad Dialogue policy conference, Amidi added that the government will not accept Iraqi territory being used to launch attacks against any other country. The Iraqi president said attacks launched from inside Iraq against countries in the region “have no justification”. On the Strait of Hormuz, Amidi said it “affects the whole world, not only Iraq”, adding that Baghdad remained in talks with Iran over what he described as “complex problems” in the Strait.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mostafa Khoshcheshm, a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Tehran, said Iran has decided to let Iraqi oil tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz because Baghdad has “always stood up to the United States”. Khoshcheshm suggested Iran is looking to punish Gulf states, which have allowed US forces to use their military bases to launch attacks on Iran – an accusation regional countries’ deny – while treating Iraq as a “friendly state”. Iraq has been among the countries most affected by Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Traffic in the strait remains significantly below pre-war levels and ships continue to face attacks in the area. Iraq produced approximately 4 million barrels of oil per day before the outbreak of the US-Israel war on Iran. But Baghdad is working to expand its exports through Turkiye’s Ceyhan port and also to begin exporting oil through Syria’s Baniyas port and Jordan’s Aqaba port, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said on Friday.
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