TEHRAN (Iran News) – Tehran, Baghdad Discuss Settling Iraq Gas Debt to Iran. Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh on Saturday hosted a meeting with an Iraqi delegation here in Tehran on Saturday to discuss how to settle Baghdad’s gas dues to Iran.
During the meeting with the Iraqi delegation headed by the Iraqi Minister of Finance Ali Abdul-Amir Allawi, Mr. Zangeneh voiced Iran’s readiness to bolster gas exports to Iraq, adding: “We hope Iraq would pay its debt to Iran as soon as possible.”
During the meeting, which was also attended by Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian, the payment of Iraq’s electricity debt to Iran was also discussed.
The meeting was accompanied by Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Abdul Alawi, Iraqi Electricity Minister Majid Mahdi Hantoush and State-owned Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) CEO Salem Chalabi.
Iran and Iraq are set to find a final solution to settling Iraq’s debt to Iran this week through joint meetings.
This is the second meeting between Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh and the Iraqi delegation in less than a month.
During the meeting in May, Zangeneh had said: “Two important contracts in the field of Iranian gas exports to Iraq have been signed with the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity in recent years and 27 billion cubic meters of Iranian gas have been exported to Iraq so far.”
After the meeting Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanin said after the meeting on Saturday that Iraq’s TBI would process payments worth $125 million from Iranian funds held in the bank to a Swiss lender for supplies of more than 16 million doses of coronavirus vaccines ordered by Iran under an international scheme.
“It is expected that administrative work is completed until the end of this working week (Thursday) and these vaccines will soon be available to the Iranian health ministry,” said Ardakanian.
