Al-Walae calls for end to US economic dominance over Iraq
Shafaq News- Baghdad
Abu Alaa al-Walae, secretary-general of the US-sanctioned Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, criticized American economic dominance over Iraq on Sunday, calling for diversifying export markets and banking relationships to achieve financial independence.
Al-Walae said one of the clearest signs of Iraq's incomplete sovereignty is the United States' control over the country's funds and resources. "Does the free world accept that Iraq's wealth be treated as a grant handed to it, rather than a sovereign right of its people?" he wrote, adding that full sovereignty cannot be achieved through territorial control alone but requires political, economic, and financial decision-making free from external dominance.
— ابو الاء الولائي (@aboalaa_alwalae) August 15, 2026
Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada is a faction within the Shiite Coordination Framework (CF), an umbrella of predominantly Iran-aligned political and paramilitary parties. The US Department of State's Rewards for Justice program has offered up to $10 million for information on al-Walae, whose full name is Hashem Finyan Rahim al-Sarraji. Both the group and its leader have been designated by Washington under counterterrorism frameworks.
Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi returns from Washington, where he signed a broad package of economic and energy agreements with the United States, amid an ongoing debate inside Iraq over the September 30 deadline for disarming Iran-aligned factions and consolidating all weapons under state authority.
