Nujaba: UAE reaped $13bn in profit from destabilizing Iraq

Iraq’s al-Nujaba Movement says the United Arab Emirates has made $13 billion from its destabilizing role in Iraq, criticizing the Iraqi government for preferring trade with a "small, non-producing country".

Nasr al-Shammari, a spokesman for the resistance movement, hit out at the Baghdad government over the country's large trade deficit with the UAE. 

According to Press TV, in remarks published Monday, the spokesman said the deficit is due to the fact that Iraq exported mostly oil products worth $1.27 billion in 2019, while it received UAE re-exports of mainly communication and satellite equipment worth $13.7 billion in the year. 

"In other words, the trade balance is equivalent to $12.43 billion in favor of the UAE,” he said.

“This is while, Iraq’s imports from Qatar were worth about $30 million, from Saudi Arabia worth about $700 million and from the United States worth $1.2 billion,” Shammari said.

Citing official figures, Shammari put Iraq's exports to China at $22 billion against $9 billion of imports from the Asian country.

The country's imports from Turkey stand at about $10 billion, and from Iran at $8 billion, nearly $1 billion of which is for the purchase of gas for power plants.

These figures, Shammari said, are “understandable and justifiable”, given that the trade involves large countries such as the US, China, Iran and Turkey, but not with the UAE which he described “a port with a number of commercial offices” producing nothing. 

ME