Tehran resumes power supply to Iraq after month of unrest

Iran has resumed supplying electricity to Iraq after shortages in Iraqi cities triggered a wave of unrest.

Deputy Energy Minister Mahmoudreza Haghifam said Tehran had restarted electricity exports to Iraq and would further increase them, Tasnim news agency reports.

“Currently, we are exporting 200 to 250 megawatts of electricity to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he said.

Iran halted electricity supplies to its western neighbour in July partly because of unpaid bills but also because of an increase in demand over summer. The cut led to accusations that Tehran was trying to create unrest in Iraq.

Baghdad’s electricity problem triggered protests last month when residents in the south vented their anger over the government’s failure to provide adequate public services and jobs. The unrest spread across Basra and eventually reached the capital, Baghdad.

The scourge of poor services continues in southern Iraq, where nearly 4,000 Basra residents have reportedly been treated for water-borne illnesses owing to polluted drinking supplies over the past week.

“The real culprit has not been identified. Blame is thrown at industrial plant discharge, water treatment plants, ice factories, tankers,” Yesar Al Maleki, resident fellow at Iraq Energy Institute, said on Twitter.

Across the border, Iran has experienced protests in recent months driven in part by the collapsing value of the rial. Tehran’s economic woes are anticipated to worsen in the face of renewed US sanctions.

US President Donald Trump this year withdrew from an international deal aimed at limiting Iran’s nuclear programme and reimposed trade sanctions this month.

Baghdad is planning to send a delegation to Washington to petition for an exemption from the sanctions, Reuters reports.

Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said Iraq would only reluctantly comply with the embargo and respect the requirement on US dollar purchases, which is a major part of the sanctions.