Iran on Monday denounced the US decision not to renew a sanctions waiver for Iraq that allowed it to purchase electricity from neighboring Iran, a move that’s part of the Trump administration’s so-called “maximum pressure campaign” against Tehran.
“Such statements are an admission of lawlessness, an admission of crimes against humanity, because the US sanctions, the unilateral US sanctions, against the Iranian nation have no justification or legal basis,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei.
Baghaei said the US ending the waiver, which expired on Sunday, was “absolutely illegal.” The waiver first started in 2018 after the previous Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal by reimposing sanctions on Iran.
Iraqis are worried that the lack of electricity from Iran will cause more power outages in the country. It’s also unclear if Iraq will still be able to purchase gas from Iran. The import of electricity from Iran, combined with the power generated by Iranian gas, accounts for 30% of Iraq’s electricity.
Also on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated that Iran would not negotiate with the US in the face of increasing sanctions. “We will NOT negotiate under pressure and intimidation. We will NOT even consider it, no matter what the subject may be,” he wrote on X.
Araghchi also said that Iran’s nuclear program will always be peaceful despite claims from US and Israeli officials that Tehran wants a nuclear bomb. “Iran’s nuclear energy program has always been—and will always remain—entirely peaceful. There is fundamentally therefore no such thing as its ‘potential militarization,'” he said.
President Trump recently acknowledged that Iranian leadership does not seek nuclear weapons but chose to increase sanctions on Iran anyway.
