The aim of Russia and China at that point was to push out all Western firms from Iraq, so allowing Iran greater scope to extend its power across the region, as a proxy for Moscow and Beijing, at the expense of Washington, London, and Brussels and their former regional allies in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain, among others. As exclusively revealed to OilPrice.com some years ago by a very high-ranking official from the Kremlin: “By keeping the West out of energy deals in Iraq, the end of Western hegemony in the Middle East will become the decisive chapter in the West’s final demise.” On the other side of the superpower equation, the U.S. and its allies believe breaking the multi-layered links between Iraq and Iran will not only significantly weaken Baghdad’s neighbour but its key sponsors, China and Russia, too. “They [the Oil Ministry] found out about the 650,000 production and told the Russians that it was fine if Lukoil wanted to leave but that before it did so it would pay compensation in lieu of the upfront investment that it promised in 2017 and promised again in 2019 as it was not meeting the time-sensitive oil production targets that it had agreed to,” said the Iraq source.
Author: Simon Watkins
Published at: 2025-12-09 00:00:00
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