Al-Khazali urges PM to press for control over dollar funds in US visit

Shafaq News/ The leader of the Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq movement on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to press the United States to allow Iraq greater control over its dollar funds during his upcoming visit to Washington.

Qais al-Khazali, the secretary-general of the Iran-backed group, made those remarks in a sermon during Eid al-Fitr prayers in Baghdad.

"The issue of economic sovereignty and Iraq's control over its decision on the dollar funds is vital and complex," he said.

"America is not doing us a favor. This is our money," he said, stressing the importance of "Iraq having the freedom to dispose of these funds according to its interests."

AL-Khazali said that "Iraq has proven - despite the unfair, unrealistic and exaggerated conditions imposed by the US Treasury on the use of the dollar - that it has largely complied with these conditions." He accused the United States of trying to "play the economic card" in a bid to "maintain the current military status of its forces in Iraq".

"This is something we do not accept," he said.