On Wednesday, Member of Parliament Ali Al-Jamali disclosed an American strategy to prolong the dollar crisis in Iraq. He emphasized that recent measures implemented by Washington to prohibit Iraqi banks from auctioning currency sales aimed to establish control of branches of Arab countries’ banks over the dollar.
Recently, Al-Jamali spoke to the Maalouma Agency and expressed concern over the alleged attempt by five Arab-affiliated banks to blackmail Iraqi merchants during the dollar purchase process for trade and import purposes. He stated that the suspension of Iraqi banks was a deliberate move to weaken the Iraqi dinar against the American dollar. .
He stated, “The banks are purchasing dollars from the Central Bank’s electronic platform at the official exchange rate and selling them in the parallel market. This crisis of the disparity between official and parallel exchange rates persists due to measures that weaken the dinar against the dollar.”
At the end of his speech, Al-Jamali mentioned that banks make twice the profit by buying at the official rate and selling at the parallel market. He also expressed his concern about Washington’s recent actions to restrict Iraqi banks from participating in the currency auction, which may result in more control by the branches of Arab banks within Iraq.
Recently, American actions have affected the value of the Iraqi currency by imposing sanctions on Iraqi banks and prohibiting the use of the dollar under various pretexts. As a result, this has led to a significant financial crisis in the Iraqi market. Additionally, the US Treasury has also suspended trading for 14 Iraqi banks, which has caused the exchange rates of the dollar to increase in the local market.
