The United States Treasury has asked Iraq to close all of its border crossings with Iran except for two, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said in an interview with Al Jazeera aired on Sunday, as Washington increases economic pressure on Tehran.

Source: Reuters

One of the two crossings that would stay open is in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Hussein said. The other would be elsewhere in the country, and, according to Anadolu Agency's account of the same interview, neither crossing has yet been identified. Hussein said it remained unclear whether the proposed restrictions would apply to visitors, commercial traffic, or all movement across the border.

Source: Anadolu Agency

“Closing them would affect our economy”

“There are many official and unofficial border crossings with Iran, and closing all of them would be difficult and would affect our economy. The Americans are still demanding the closure of the crossings, and we are currently in discussions with them,” Hussein told Al Jazeera, Reuters reported.

“Closing the border crossings could be a punishment for Iran, but it would also hurt Iraq,” he said. “Trade would stop, movement would stop, and that would affect us economically.” Iraq shares its longest border with Iran, with official and unofficial crossings stretching from the Kurdistan region in the north to Basra in the south.

One busy crossing is already shut

Last month, Iraq closed the busy Sheeb border crossing with Iran — known as Chazabeh on the Iranian side — to review security and install detection equipment to stop smuggling, Reuters reported. That closure, ordered on October 21, was reported at the time as an Iraqi security measure; Hussein's remarks are the first public indication that Washington is pressing Baghdad to go much further and cut the whole border down to two gates.

The Sheeb closure was covered by Awaaz Punjab when it was ordered in October. Read: Iraq orders Al-Sheeb crossing with Iran shut

Part of a wider squeeze on Iran's land routes

The Treasury request disclosed by Hussein runs in parallel with a military measure announced a day earlier: on Saturday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it had set up Task Force Iron Gate to disrupt Iran's use of land routes and the Caspian Sea to move advanced weapons, dual-use technology and sanctioned materials. Together, the two steps aim to close the overland gaps left by the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, in place since July.

CENTCOM's Task Force Iron Gate announcement was covered by Awaaz Punjab on November 7. Read: US forms Task Force Iron Gate to curb Iran's land and Caspian routes

Iraq counts a $60 billion Hormuz loss

Hussein also estimated that Iraq lost about US$60 billion (yaani roughly 60 arab dollars — about 6,000 crore dollars in South Asian counting) after it was unable to export oil through the Strait of Hormuz for roughly four months at the start of the war, Anadolu reported. Before the disruption, he said, Iraq was exporting around 3.3 million to 3.4 million barrels of oil a day. He warned that military operations could resume in the region and said Baghdad opposed the use of Iraqi territory to attack neighbouring countries.

In the same interview, Hussein said Iraq and Iran were jointly investigating an attack on Saudi Arabia that, according to information received by Baghdad, was launched from inside Iraq near the Iranian border, and that Iraq's prime minister had reached understandings with four armed groups on bringing their weapons under state control, with discussions continuing with two others. Awaaz Punjab reported Hussein's earlier remarks on foreign parties using Iraqi soil on November 7; the border-crossings demand is a separate, new disclosure from this interview.

What happens next

Talks between Baghdad and Washington are continuing, Hussein said, and no crossings have been named and no deadline has been made public. No separate US Treasury statement on the request had been confirmed in the reports. For the thousands of traders, truck drivers and families who cross the Iraq–Iran border — a frontier that also carries food, fuel and goods deep into both countries — the decision will decide whether the border stays a lifeline or becomes the next front in Washington's economic campaign against Tehran.