Iraq is under pressure from the US to make itself less dependent on Iran’s energy, but Iraqi leaders say the demand is a bar set too high given the Arab country’s state of infrastructure which is still badly battered decades after the US invasion and sanctions and economic decline, Press TV wrote.

US leaders were hoping to bring Iraq on board as Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi visited Washington last week. President Donald Trump said US companies were involved in many prospects in Iraq’s oil business.

Ahead of Kadhimi’s visit, five US firms signed agreements with the Iraqi government aimed at boosting what the White House characterized as Iraq’s energy independence from Iran.

The US Department of Energy in a statement said that Honeywell International, Baker Hughes, General Electric, Stellar Energy and Chevron had signed commercial agreements worth as much as $8 billion with the Iraqi ministers of oil and electricity.

US energy companies have been trying to expand their involvement in the oil-rich nation. In 2018, the Trump administration reportedly warned Iraqi officials to forgo a $15 billion power generation deal with Germany’s Siemens and award it to General Electric instead.

According to Bloomberg News, senior US officials warned former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi at the time that signing the deal with Siemens would seriously jeopardize Iraq’s relations with the United States.

Iraq’s Finance Minister Ali Allawi said in an online interview with the Atlantic Council, an American international affairs think tank, on Friday that Baghdad could “significantly” reduce its heavy reliance on Iranian energy imports by as soon as next year by linking up with the Persian Gulf power grid.

“This has been going on for several years now, it is unlikely we can find a short term substitute, but a medium-term effort can be done by linking the Iraqi grid to the Persian Gulf grid,” Allawi said. “The dependence on Iranian electricity and energy will begin to trail down significantly sometime next year.”

The US State Department said last month that the six countries that make up the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the UAE — had affirmed their shared support for the project to supply electricity to Iraq.

Allawi was part of a delegation accompanying Prime Minister Kadhimi on his visit to Washington where the US pressed the Iraqi side on allowing energy investment by Saudi Arabia.

“Saudi Arabia is to invest in the Iraqi energy and gas sector, including Saudi-owned companies Aramco and Aqua group,” Allawi confirmed in the Atlantic Council interview.

Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul-Jabbar was quoted on Tuesday as saying that at least 80 percent of the gas projects in Iraq are already under implementation.

But a halt to imports from Iran will come no sooner than five years from now. “We will not import gas by 2025,” he told al-Iraqia TV in an interview.

Iraq imports 1,200-1,500 megawatts a day of electricity from Iran, in addition to 38 million cubic meters of natural gas to power 40 percent of its electricity generation.

So far, the United States has “granted” nine rounds of waivers to allow Iraq to continue imports from Iran. The current waiver, issued in May, gives the country 120 days to continue its energy imports without being punished for trade with Iran which came under the most aggressive US sanctions in 2019.

Iraqi officials have complained that American demand acknowledges neither Iraq’s energy needs nor the complex relations between Baghdad and Tehran.

In addition to natural gas and electricity, Iraq imports a wide range of goods from Iran including food, agricultural products, home appliances, and air conditioners.

Last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Kadhimi visited Tehran “to strengthen historical ties” between the two countries. The two sides, he said, discussed implementing agreements between them, including connecting their railway through Khorramshahr in Iran and Basra in Iraq.

Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said the two neighbors had finalized two agreements to rehabilitate and develop the Arab country’s power grid.

“It was decided that the contracts related to reducing losses on the electricity distribution network in the provinces of Karbala and Najaf, as well as the contract for repairing Iraq’s distribution transformers would be finalized and signed,” the Iranian minister said.

The navy said in a statement issued late Saturday that the drillship Yavuz, which has been based off Cyprus for the past few months, will explore off the southwestern coast of the island from August 18 to September 15, AFP reported.

Turkey’s decision has put it at loggerheads with its uneasy NATO ally Greece and the rest of the EU, with France announcing last week it would bolster its presence in the region in support of Athens.

The EU has repeatedly called on Ankara to halt its energy exploration off Cyprus, arguing that the drilling is illegal because it infringes on the island’s exclusive economic zone.

But Turkey remains steadfast, saying it has a right to search for oil and gas in the Eastern Mediterranean, where regional nations are racing for riches after the discovery of large energy deposits.

“We strongly advise against going to the search area,” the Turkish Navy warned in its statement.

Last week, Ankara sent the seismic research vessel Oruc Reis, escorted by warships, to an area claimed by Greece, triggering the ire of Athens and the EU.

On Friday, EU foreign ministers voiced solidarity with Greece and called for a de-escalation of the crisis.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that Ankara was ready for dialogue but insisted: “We will not back down in the face of sanctions and threats.”

The Turkish Defense Ministry, meanwhile, published photographs of naval maneuvers in the Eastern Mediterranean, showing warships escorting another seismic research vessel, the Barbaros Hayrettin Pasa.

Currently, Turkey imports gas from Azerbaijan, Russia, and Iran through the pipeline, and Russia owned 55 percent of the Turkish market while the remaining 45 percent is shared by Iran and Azerbaijan, said Head of Energy Commission of Tehran Chamber of Commerce Hamid-Reza Salehi, ILNA reported on July 15.

Salehi exclusively told ILNA, “The resumption of gas imports from Iran after a 3-month hiatus should be considered auspicious.”

Iran’s natural gas exports to Turkey halted due to an explosion that hit the pipeline on Turkish soil on March 31.

Salehi referred to some problems facing Russia’s “Blue Stream pipeline” that transfer gas to Turkey stressing that under the existing circumstances, Iran “must develop its liquid petroleum gas (LPG) in order to influence the Turkish market.”

Presently Ankara imports LPG by ship from the United States, Qatar, and Algeria. However, Iran can be a better actor “by selling its gas to Ankara on better terms,” said the official.

Salehi urged the need to use ‘economic diplomacy’ to be a winner in the economic competitions.

Relations between Russia and Turkey, one of Moscow’s biggest consumers of natural gas, have been patchy for the past years and are beset by the number of issues, including conflicts in Syria and Libya as well as the status of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia.

On July 10, a Turkish court annulled a 1934 cabinet decree that had turned Hagia Sophia into a museum, paving the way for its use again as a mosque after 85 years, the Turkish official News Agency, Anadolu, reported.

After centuries of service as a church under the Byzantine Empire, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II following his conquest of Istanbul in 1453.

In 1935, Hagia Sophia was converted into a museum.

Reconversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque received different reactions in the international community. It was welcomed by Muslim countries but hurt some others.

Russia’s Blue Stream pipeline, launched in the early 2000s, moved 11.1 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Turkey last year out of a total of 15.5 bcm exported.

According to a statement, published on Monday on the ministry’s news website, the state-run gas company in Turkmenistan, Turkmengaz has never sought any indemnity from the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) over delayed payments related to a gas import deal that was suspended three years ago over disagreements on price and other issues.

Turkmengaz stopped supplying gas to Iran in 2017 after the NIGC resisted a demand for price hike while arguing that the quality and quantity of the gas supplied to areas in northeastern Iran was not consistent with the agreement between the two sides, presstv.com reported.

Media reports earlier on Monday suggested that based on an ICC’s verdict, Iran should pay nearly $500 million in interest and fines on delayed payments over the Turkmengaz deal.

Iranian authorities had previously endorsed reports that the country’s debt to Turkmenistan over nearly 10 years of gas imports ending 2017 could amount to $1.5 billion.

However, the Oil Ministry statement rejected the notion it should pay any fines while suggesting that the ICC had ordered Turkmengaz to pay fines over the quality and quantity of the gas supplied to Iran.

The statement said, however, that details of ICC’s ruling would remain confidential unless parties to the dispute decide to publicize them.

Iran would respect the ruling, expressing hope that it could help the two “neighboring and brotherly countries” bolster their relations, said the statement.