The Biden administration quietly extended a sanctions waiver that will grant Iran access to roughly $10 billion from Iraq two days after President-elect Donald Trump’s Election Day victory.
The controversial waiver, which has been repeatedly extended by Secretary of State Antony Blinken despite strong opposition from congressional Republicans, allows the Iranian regime access to funds from Iraq in exchange for electricity purchases.
“On November 7th, the [State Department] did renew Iraq’s electricity waiver for the 23rd time since 2018,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel confirmed last week.
“It was done so for an additional 120 days,” Patel noted – a time frame that will overlap with the early months of Trump’s second term in office.
Under the conditions of the waiver, Iran will receive nearly $10 billion being held in escrow accounts in Iraq that US officials claim may only be used for humanitarian trade.
However, the waiver extension allows the Iranian regime to transfer the electricity payments to accounts in Oman, which can then be converted to other currencies for the Islamic Republic to purchase non-sanctioned products.
It’s unclear if Trump, 78, plans on scrapping the Iran sanctions waiver when he returns to office.
In September, the Justice Department brought charges against three members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for hacking Trump campaign staffers and leaking sensitive information to media outlets and the campaign of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in an effort to undermine the 45th president’s White House bid.
The Trump-Vance transition team did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The State Department was quick to point out that during Trump’s first term, his administration signed off on the waiver as well.
“Since 2018 – as you know, this started in the previous administration – the State Department has permitted Iraq to purchase Iranian electricity while Iraq continues to develop its own domestic generation capacity,” Patel said.
“We remain committed to reducing Iran’s malign influence in the region,” the State Department official added. “Our viewpoint is that a stable, sovereign, and secure Iraq is critical to these efforts.”
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) argued Tuesday that the sanctions waiver allows the Iranian regime to fund terror.
“The House voted to eliminate these waiver authorities — twice. But the Biden administration is still waiving the sanctions, putting more money in the Iranian regime’s pockets to fund its terrorist proxies and nuclear weapons program,” McCaul wrote on X.
“The U.S. should not be subsidizing Iran’s malign activities,” he added.
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