Iraq Secures Iranian Approval for Oil Tanker Transit Through Hormuz
Tehran granted the permission after repeated requests from Baghdad, though the deal stays complicated.
Tehran has cleared a number of Iraqi oil tankers to cross the Strait of Hormuz, after Baghdad pressed the request through several diplomatic channels, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported.
IRNA said securing the special permission for Iraqi tankers was one of Baghdad's main requests during a visit to Iraq by Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. Iraqi President Nizar Amedi said Iran had facilitated passage of vessels carrying Iraqi oil through the strait in recent days, and that Baghdad had discussed further oil exports through Hormuz with Iranian officials — though he called the issue still complicated, speaking on the sidelines of the Baghdad Dialogue conference.
Few countries have felt Iran's effective closure of the strait as sharply as Iraq. Volumes through Hormuz stay well down on pre-war levels and vessels there keep coming under attack, which is why a producer this dependent on the waterway is negotiating exceptions one shipment at a time rather than waiting for the wider dispute to resolve. Iraq produced around 4 million barrels of oil a day before the outbreak of the Iran war, a volume that depends heavily on unimpeded export routes.
Baghdad has not relied solely on diplomacy with Tehran. Baghdad is simultaneously working to grow export volumes through Turkey's Ceyhan terminal and to open new outlets via Syria's Baniyas and Jordan's Aqaba, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said — a hedging strategy that runs in parallel with, rather than instead of, the request for Iranian cooperation on Hormuz access. Together, the moves illustrate how thoroughly Iraq's oil export logistics have had to be rebuilt around a conflict whose maritime chokepoint sits directly on its main route to market.
