Iran’s Gas Flow to Iraq Resumed after Pipeline Repair

Iranian oil ministry announced on Saturday that the flow of gas exports from Iran’s Naftshahr to Iraq’s Baghdad has resumed after a halt due to damages done to the pipeline in recent heavy floods and landslide in the southwest of Iran and southeast of Iraqi regions.

The gas exports to Iraqi capital Baghdad returned to normal on Wednesday after pipeline repairs.

According to the Iran’s Oil Ministry, the flow of exports from Shalamcheh to Iraqi city of Basra has also returned to normal after a few days halt.

Iran had halted gas exports to Iraq early last month for several days due to damages to the pipeline caused by an earthquake which struck the Iran-Iran border areas.

Iran and Iraq enjoy very close ties in the post-Saddam era and early in September, Advisor to the Iranian Parliament Speaker Hossein Amir Abdollahian underlined that Tehran and Baghdad enjoy strategic relations, blaming foreign hands for the recent unrest and attack on Iran's consulate in Basra.

“There are clear traces of the complicity of foreign agents of the region’s warmongers in the incident of arson attack on the consulate of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Basra,” Amir Abdollahian wrote on his twitter page.

“British Shiite and Saudi Wahhabism won’t be allowed to drag Iraq into chaos. Tehran-Baghdad relations are strategic,” he added.

On September 21, Amir Abdollahian blasted the US for trying to hamper the relations between Tehran and Baghdad, and said the ties between Iran and Iraq are strategic.

Iraqi media outlets released several audio files showing the Saudi intelligence agencies' footprints in the recent unrests in Basra city in Southern Iraq.

The Arabic-language al-Ahd news channel released the audio files on Saturday, revealing that Saudi Arabia has been running spying attempts to earn intelligence superiority in Iraq.

One of the files indicated that the Saudi intelligence agency has recruited several people in Iraq to be used in sensitive conditions, including the recent unrests in Basra, to monitor the police and security forces' moves in the region.

They showed that the Iraqi spies provided a Saudi officer, named Abu Khalid al-Saudi, with intelligence about the trafficking and deployment of security forces and army and police commanders in return for money and gifts.

The audio files also disclosed that the Saudi intelligence agency has created an extensive network of spies in Western, Central and Northern Iraq in addition to the Southern parts of the country.

Iraqis in Southern areas of the country are demonstrating against lack of public services in poor areas and the angry protestors have set many government buildings and diplomatic missions in Basra on fire.

Protesters stormed the Iranian consulate in Southern Iraq's city of Basra, setting it on fire as part of demonstrations against lack of services and jobs in which several government buildings have been ransacked and torched.

Demonstrators on Friday broke into the consulate building in Basra which was empty when the crowd burst in.

Iraqi security officials announced a citywide curfew in Basra, a city of two million people, warning that "anyone present in the street" would be arrested.

The latest foreign trade statistics of non-oil exports show that Iraq was ranked first in the list of importing Iranian goods for the second consecutive month.

In relevant remarks earlier this week, Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammad Hashim al-Ani in a meeting with Iran’s Ambassador to Baghdad Iraj Masjedi expressed hope that Tehran and Baghdad would boost their trade and economic relations, reaffirming the Iraqi government’s commitment to develop trade with Iran.

Mohammad Hashim al-Ani, referred to the upcoming visit by Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Reza Rahmani to his country, voiced his eagerness to talk discuss development of bilateral relations in the economic, investment and trade fields.

The Iraqi minister expressed hope that the two neighbors would boost their trades and economic relations.

Referring to the US’ unilateral sanctions on Iran, the Iraqi official reiterated his respective government’s support to the Islamic Republic, saying Iraq will not abandon Iran under pressure.

Masjedi, for his part, expressed gratitude toward Iraq for making every effort to deepen relations with Tehran, saying, the Iranian private sector is ready to broaden the scope of its activities and cooperation with Iraqi partners in different economic sectors.