The US Treasury designated on 7 May Iraq’s deputy oil minister Ali Maarich for what it said was abusing “his position to facilitate the diversion of oil to be sold for the benefit of the Iranian regime and its proxy militias in Iraq.” Mr Maarich overseas oil products distribution and was in the running to be Iraq’s next oil minister. He is the first Iraqi oil official to be sanctioned by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (Ofac).
The Treasury claims that he was instrumental in aiding sanctioned Iraqi-British businessman Salim Ahmed Said to “illicitly procure oil products by granting exportation rights to Said’s companies” and by authorizing the trucking of heavy Qayara crude to Mr Said’s VS Oil Terminal in Basra for export. It added that Mr Maarich is “also responsible for falsifying documentation on the provenance of oil for Said’s network, enabling it to be smuggled to market disguised as purely Iraqi oil.” (CONTINUED - 293 WORDS)