Iraq weighs US request to close most Iran border crossings

A request under discussion, not an order in force

Iraq is discussing a US request to close all but two border crossings with Iran, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said on Sunday, warning that a wider shutdown would disrupt trade and movement and hurt Iraq’s economy.

Hussein described the request in an interview with Al Jazeera. Reuters reported that the US Treasury made it as part of Washington’s effort to increase economic pressure on Tehran. Baghdad has not announced that it will carry out the request. Hussein said discussions with US officials were continuing and that many official and unofficial crossings make a full closure difficult.

The distinction matters: the public account is of a request, not a border closure agreed by Iraq. No US Treasury statement or document confirming it was found in the sources reviewed.

Two crossings, still unnamed

Hussein said one of the two proposed exceptions would be in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region and the other elsewhere in the country. Neither has been identified. It is also unclear whether the proposed restrictions would cover commercial trucks, visitors or all border movement, Anadolu Ajansı reported from the interview.

That leaves basic details unsettled for people and businesses on both sides of the border. Hussein said closing the crossings would stop trade and movement and could harm Iraq economically. His warning is a statement of the government’s concern; the published reports do not quantify the likely cost or describe a settled alternative for freight.

The Sheib closure raises a separate question

Iraq closed the al-Sheib crossing in Maysan province to goods and travelers on Oct. 21. Officials then cited technical and logistical work and efforts to stop smuggling, counterfeit currency and drugs, according to 964media. A government adviser publicly ruled out US pressure at the time.

After Hussein disclosed Washington’s broader request, the Sadiqoun parliamentary bloc called for one official explanation of the Sheib decision, saying the two accounts raised questions. The bloc belongs to the ruling Coordination Framework, 964media reported. As of Sunday afternoon, the outlet said, the government had not publicly reconciled the explanations.

Hussein did not say that al-Sheib was one of the crossings Washington wanted closed or that the October shutdown resulted from the request. The available reporting therefore does not establish a link between that earlier measure and the proposal he described.

The Badr parliamentary bloc also rejected the US demand and called for closed crossings to be reopened, 964media reported. Badr and Sadiqoun both belong to the governing Coordination Framework, the alliance of Shiite parties, according to the outlet. Their statements show objections inside the ruling bloc, but they are not decisions by Iraq’s cabinet.

What Baghdad has yet to decide

For now, Iraq’s position is defined by the competing concerns Hussein described: pressure on Iran, border control, and the cost to Iraq of interrupting commerce and travel. The identities of the two proposed open crossings, the categories of traffic affected and any Iraqi commitment remain unsettled in the public record.

Those unanswered questions will determine whether the request becomes a targeted security arrangement or a much broader interruption to cross-border life and trade.