Shafaq News- Baghdad

The US State Department has withdrawn the visa of former Iraqi Finance Minister Taif Sami and placed her on a US terrorist watchlist, Fox News reported on Friday, citing a senior State Department official.

Dylan Johnson, Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs, said that while the Biden State Department “shamefully celebrated and awarded foreigners who threaten our nation, the Trump State Department revokes their visas and ensures these individuals are removed from our country.”

The move followed accusations by Republican lawmakers that Sami helped facilitate “terrorist financing” through Iraq’s financial system. US Representatives Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, and Greg Steube, a Republican from Florida, previously described Sami as a key enabler of terrorist funding in Iraq, urging the Trump administration to sanction her.

Sami served as Iraq’s finance minister and received the US State Department’s International Women of Courage Award in 2022 during the administration of President Joe Biden.

Fox News also cited a report by the Iraqi News Agency, which quoted informed sources as saying that an Iraqi court had summoned Sami and placed her on a judicial wanted list as authorities expanded investigations into corruption allegations involving senior former government officials.

In June, Sami’s office denied reports that she had fled Iraq or been arrested amid an anti-corruption campaign, describing the reports as false.