The United States has issued another 120-day waiver to Iraq to allow it to purchase electricity from Iran.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee confirmed to The Epoch Times on July 30 that Congress has been notified of the move by the State Department and that the waiver was apparently renewed on July 11.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The waiver has been repeatedly issued by the United States since 2018, most recently in March.
The State Department has previously defended the waiver, saying it would not allow for funds to go to the regime in Iran—which is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism—and that the money can only be used for humanitarian purposes.
Iran supports Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, all three of which have attacked Israel in the past several months.
Israel has been fighting Hamas in Gaza since the U.S.-designated terrorist group launched an assault on Israel on Oct. 7, resulting in the largest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Hamas members also raped women and took Israelis and others captive. Eight of the captives are Americans.
Hezbollah, also a U.S.-designated terrorist group, launched a rocket attack at a soccer field in northern Israel over the weekend that resulted in the deaths of 12 Israeli children.
The Houthis conducted a drone attack on Tel Aviv earlier this month, and has attacked dozens of international ships in the Red Sea since November.
Richard Goldberg, who led Iran policy for the National Security Council during the Trump administration, told The Epoch Times that he believed Iran would use the funds for malign activities.
“The money used to be held in escrow, now it’s opened up for Iran to use to pay off debts and finance imports,” he said.
Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, shared similar concerns.
Given that Iran has been “rocketing U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria, and its proxies are attacking international shipping, the U.S. should not be granting permissive waivers of this nature,” he said.
“The issue here is money is fungible—and limiting use for humanitarian purposes opens up other streams of funding for the Islamic Republic to feed to its terror proxies and partners,” Mr. Brodsky added.
