Iran denies Iraqi power shift to Saudi Arabia over electricity shortage
An Iraqi electricity station.
Tehran (IraqiNews.com) – A senior Iranian official has denied that Iraq would depend on Saudi Arabia instead of his country to solve its electricity problem.
“This would be a fictitious act for Iraq to replace Iran with Saudi Arabia to resolve the problem of electricity shortages in 45 days,” as requested by the US sanctions, Deputy Head of Iran Electricity Industry Syndicate (IEIS) Payam Baqeri told FNA on Sunday.
He stressed the need for a more serious and infrastructural measure in order to meet Iraq’s needs of electricity, adding that power projects should be implemented as soon as possible in order to resolve the problem of electricity in the Arab country forever.
“Iraq is in dire need of Iran’s electricity and they cannot deny it,” Baqeri said, adding that last summer when Iran was forced to cut power supplies to Iraq for its high domestic consumption, the latter faced a crisis.
Iraq is the biggest importer of electricity from Iran. Iraq needs more than 23,000 megawatts of additional electricity to meet domestic demands after decades of war with Islamic State group.
Siemens boss Joe Kaeser discussed with Iraqi officials in September a proposal to expand the Middle East nation’s power production.
The German engineering group said its boss proposed a deal to add 11 gigawatt (GW) of capacity over four years, saying this would boost the country’s capacity by nearly 50 percent.