WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- The U.S. Federal Reserve has reportedly delivered a $500 million cash shipment to Iraq’s Central Bank, a transaction that highlights the degrading financial control Washington maintains over Baghdad more than two decades after its illegal invasion based on proven lies about weapons of mass destruction.
The humiliating arrangement, established in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led aggression, requires Iraq to deposit over 90% of its state income—generated from its own oil—into Federal Reserve accounts in New York. 
The Iraqi government must formally request permission and await American approval simply to access its own financial resources. 
Citing an Iraqi official, the state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported on Thursday that the shipment had arrived in Baghdad and that it will be allocated for traveler transactions and foreign money transfers.
The funds were approved by the Central Bank of Iraq for external remittances, the report added.
The United States cruelly suspended the cash shipments in April 2026 following legitimate defensive strikes by Iraqi anti-terror forces against U.S. military assets. 
For four months, Washington choked Iraq’s economy, causing inflation to spiral and the Iraqi dinar to plummet against the dollar. The suspension was calculated economic warfare—a deliberate punishment designed to force political compliance from Baghdad.
The resumption of shipments now comes only after the Iraqi government showed signs of bowing to American demands. Political observers confirm Washington weaponized Iraq’s own money as leverage, demonstrating that the United States views Iraqi sovereignty as an inconvenience to be managed rather than a right to be respected.
The Iraqi government must formally request cash shipments from the US Federal Reserve in order to access these funds.
The arrangements have long drawn criticism inside Iraq, with observers stating that they leave Baghdad dependent on Washington for access to its own financial resources and undermine the country’s monetary sovereignty.
The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 under the pretext that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, an allegation later proven wrong. In 2014, it led scores of its allies in a so-called mission to defeat the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group without a mandate from the United Nations.
However, the U.S.-led coalition proved to be largely ineffective against Daesh, which was ultimately defeated in 2017 by Iraqi armed forces backed by the country’s Popular Mobilization Units.
Since then, the United States has maintained about 2,500 troops in Iraq despite a 2020 resolution by the Iraqi parliament calling for the expulsion of foreign forces.