US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the timing of the renewal of US exemptions to Iraq for a $10 billion transfer to Iran to pay for electricity imports from Iran coincided with the expiration of a previous exemption.

In response to Al-Hura’s question, Miller said the previous waiver expired last Tuesday.

Two senior US State Department officials announced Tuesday that Anthony Blinken signed a decision to extend Iraq’s exemption from sanctions on Iran for 120 days.

Both officials explained that the extension was the twenty-first since 2018 and that Iran “can only use restricted funds in Iraqi banks for humanitarian and other unauthorized transactions.”

Miller declined to answer a question about whether Iran would help prevent Hezbollah from waging an all-out war on Israel, saying, “I won’t talk about the actions Iran has taken, but we sent a very clear and strong message that we believe there is no party that should enter this conflict that is hostile to Israel.”

He added: “We’ve sent public messages in this direction, and you’ve seen President Joe Biden talk about it. We’ve also sent private messages on this, and we hope they’ll come. If they don’t, we’re ready to take action.”

“As I understand it, none of this money has been spent yet,” he said of the $6 billion transfer from South Korea to Iran via Qatar.