The Iraq Sanctions Strike That Signals Washington’s New Middle East Playbook

Iraq’s Deputy Minister of Oil, Ali Maarij Al-Bahadly, along with many other individuals and businesses, was last week included by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in sanctions targeting the exploitation of Iraq’s oil sector to benefit Iran and Iran-aligned militias. These moves by OFAC are part of a ramping up of pressure on Iraqi entities that continue to deal with Iran, effectively bankrolling its current regime and the activities of its military, political, religious, and terrorist…