ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The US on Thursday announced new sanctions targeting Iraqi individuals and businesses allegedly exploiting the country’s oil sector to support Iran and its proxies, including the country's deputy oil minister Ali Maarij al-Bahadly.

 

The sanctions target Bahadly for being “instrumental in facilitating the diversion of Iraqi oil products” to benefit Iran-affiliated oil smuggler Salim Ahmed Said and the Iran-aligned militia Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said in a statement.

 

AAH is a pro-Iran armed group that is part of the state-integrated Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and is designated as a terrorist organization by the US, having been responsible for numerous attacks on US diplomatic and military facilities.

 

“For years, Maarij has used his official positions—first as the head of the Iraqi parliament’s oil and gas committee, and then within the Iraq Ministry of Oil—to enrich Said, AAH, and by extension, Iran,” the OFAC added.

 

The deputy briefly served as acting oil minister in 2024 when his superior, Hayyan Abdul-Ghani, required a medical procedure in the US. Bahadly at the time said that “all the administrative and financial powers granted to the minister” were bestowed upon him during the latter's absence.

 

“Like a rogue gang, the Iranian regime is pillaging resources that rightfully belong to the Iraqi people,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “Treasury will not stand idly by as Iran's military exploits Iraqi oil to fund terrorism against the United States and our partners.” 

 

The sanctions, which come as part a large-scale US campaign dubbed Operation Economic Fury seeking to disrupt Iranian revenue sources, also target an economic official for AAH, Mustafa Hashim Lazim al-Behadili, who also owns a number of companies in the country’s oil sector.

 

“Following the US withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, al-Behadili played an important role in developing an oil trucking and security unit, allowing AAH to become a dominant actor in the Iraqi metals industry, as well as enabling AAH’s entrance into fuel oil theft, which focused on stolen or subsidized oil,” the OFAC said.

 

Last month, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions targeting seven pro-Iran Iraqi militia commanders “responsible for planning, directing, and executing attacks” against US personnel and interests in the country during the war with Iran, including Kataib Hezbollah, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS), Harakat al-Nujaba, and AAH.

 

A senior KSS official, Ahmed Khudair Maksus Maksus, is also targeted in the latest sanction package for allegedly arranging “the payment of millions of dollars to Hizbollah to facilitate the purchase of weapons, and coordinated logistics related to the transfer and delivery of the weapons with Hizbollah associates.”

 

Many of the militias mentioned are part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of Iran-aligned Iraqi Shiite militias linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

 

The groups are also officially under the auspices of the Iraqi state via the PMF, which was formed by Shiite paramilitary groups in 2014 following a call from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to mobilize against the Islamic State (ISIS). In 2016, the PMF was granted official status by the Iraqi government.