US Blocks Regular $500 Million Cash Pallets Flown to Iraq, Over Pro-Iran Militias
23rd April 2026
In confirmation of some early reporting we featured at the start of this week, The Wall Street Journal has verified something that Iraqi officials themselves were denying just days ago: the US is blocking Iraq’s regular dollar shipments in order to pressure it’s Iran-backed militias.
“The Trump administration has suspended U.S. dollar shipments to Iraq and frozen security cooperation programs with its military, escalating the pressure on Baghdad to dismantle powerful Iranian-backed militias,” said Iraqi and US officials interviewed in the report.
Pallets of cash and the Middle East should ring familiar, stretching from the Bush-Cheney years to even the Obama years (and Iran sanctions relief as part of the original nuclear deal). In this case, like with the Obama/Iran deal saga before, this is actually Iraq’s own oil revenue money.