Basra Epitomizes Iraq’s Reliance on Iran

Date: 13 May 2019 - 21:46

News ID: ۶۵۹۳۶

BASRA (Dispatches) -- Few in Iraq’s oil capital, Basra, look forward to the fetid humidity of summer, when temperatures can soar to 55C. But for Adel Abdul- Mahdi, Iraqi prime minister, the coming months will be especially nerve-racking, as his government races to prevent a repeat of protests over electricity blackouts that brought Basra to its knees last year.
But to do this, he requires the help of neighboring Iran, British daily the Financial Times reported on Monday.
The head of electricity production for the area that includes Basra said he had a "guarantee from the Iranian side” that there would be no repeat of 2018, when Tehran turned off the 400MW power line to southern Iraq, worsening rolling blackouts that sparked unrest. That promise, along with two new electricity units supplied by U.S. company General Electric, makes him "optimistic” that this summer will be better than last.
Basra’s energy reliance on Iran epitomizes Iraq’s dependence its neighbor.
Iran and Iraq have forged close ties in the years since the dictator Saddam Hussein was ousted in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. But the ramping up of economic sanctions on Iran under U.S. president Donald Trump is aimed at weakening those ties.
Mike Pompeo, U.S. secretary of state, used a brief visit to Baghdad last week to ratchet up the pressure on Tehran.
Dependence on Iranian electricity is just one way that southern Iraq relies on its neighbor.
Iraq’s electricity sector has been unable to meet demand despite absorbing $120 billion since 2003, Iraq’s electricity minister Luay al-Khatteeb said this year.
The International Energy Agency said Iraq’s network losses were "astronomical”, with as much as 60 percent of electricity wasted in transmission.
Unable to generate and transmit sufficient electricity domestically, Iraq needs its energy lifeline from Iran.
The oil-rich nation needs Iranian gas to fire its power plants. The U.S. wants Baghdad to stop these purchases, which would be in violation of renewed American sanctions on Tehran. But Iraq cannot function without it, and the U.S. has been forced to issue its third 90-day sanctions waiver.
Iraq is also Iran’s second-biggest non-oil export destination, after China. Of $44 billion Iranian non-oil exports, almost $9 billion worth of goods, from bricks to yoghurt, were exported to Iraq in the year to March — up 36 percent year on year, according to the Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce.
A 60 percent fall in the rial’s value over the past year has accelerated this by making Iranian imports cheaper.
Supermarket shelves in Basra are filled with Iranian goods, from meats to ice cream. About 80 percent of agricultural produce for sale in the city’s markets are imported, mostly from Iran, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, an NGO.
Basra is so reliant on Iranian produce, observed a teacher in the city, that tomato prices almost doubled during the Persian new year celebration in March, as Iranian suppliers closed down for the Nowruz holiday.