Majid Chegeni made the remarks on the sidelines of a conference on retrofitting natural gas production, transmission, and distribution systems and grid, the Iranian oil ministry news service SHANA reported.

“Our problem is only transferring money from TBI Bank of Iraq”, he added. 

A senior Iraqi foreign ministry official was cited by international media including Reuters on June 11th that Iraq had agreed to pay about $2.76 billion in gas and electricity debt to Iran after receiving a sanctions waiver from the United States.

On June 10, Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce Chairman Yahya Al-e Es’haq said $2.7 billion of Iran’s assets frozen in Iraq due to US sanctions on Iran were released.

Iraqi Minister of Electricity Ziyad Ali Fadel has also said Baghdad has paid all its gas debt to Tehran.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian official said that Iran is holding gas negotiations with Turkey and Turkmenistan.

He added that Turkey has called for extending its contract on importing gas from Iran and the two sides’ talks are underway.

Touching upon importing gas from Turkmenistan, the NIGC CEO said that Tehran and Ashgabat are holding talks.

SKH/SHANA