US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the timing of renewing the exemption issued by the United States to Iraq regarding the transfer of $10 billion to Iran, to pay electricity revenues imported from Iran, is linked to the expiration of the previous exemption.

Miller added, in response to a question from Al-Hurra, that the previous exemption expired last Tuesday.

Two senior US State Department officials announced that Secretary Anthony Blinken signed, on Tuesday, the decision to extend Iraq’s exemption from sanctions imposed on Iran, for a period of 120 days.

The two officials explained that this extension is the twenty-first since 2018, and that Iran “can only use funds restricted in Iraqi banks for humanitarian and other non-sanctioned transactions.”

Miller refused to answer a question about whether Iran helped prevent Hezbollah from waging an all-out war on Israel, saying, “I will not talk about the measures taken by Iran, but we sent very clear and strong messages that we believe that no party hostile to Israel should enter into this conflict.” ".

He added: "We sent public messages in this direction, and you saw President Joe Biden talking about it. We also sent private messages in this regard and we hope they will arrive. If they do not arrive, we will be ready to take action."

Regarding the six billion dollars transferred from South Korea to Iran via Qatar, he said, “As I understand it, none of this money has been spent yet.”