With all due respect, article says the exact opposite.
It sounds a lot like Iraq has forged a strategic partnership with China to expand investment as part of One Belt One Road.
At the same time, prior to the appointment of al-Kadhimi, as prime minister, Iraq had been working on new laws that were to regulate the operation of a reconstruction agency, the primary function of which, according to the Iran source, was to: “Allow China to just get on with its plans, without the usual red-tape.” All of these initiatives are back on track, the source underlined, with al-Kadhimi having come to the conclusion – given the country’s parlous economic state, and rising unrest against the remnants of U.S. occupation – that siding fully with Iran (and, by extension, China and then Russia) is the only solution that holds up the chance of a near-term fix for Iraq’s ongoing financial and security problems. “Iran can lend immediate security support to Iraq, just as it did in the Kurdish uprising in the north after the 2017 independence vote, and China and Russia can give wider support to Iraq, as they each have Permanent Member votes – two out of the five [the others are the U.S., the U.K., and France] – on the UNSC [United Nations Security Council],” the source told OilPrice.com last week.
As recently as last October, Iraq’s Electricity Minister Louay al-Khateeb wrote: “China is our primary option as a strategic partner in the long run...We started with a $10 billion financial framework for a limited quantity of oil to finance some infrastructure projects...[but] Chinese funding tends to increase with the growing Iraqi oil production, [and is] to be used differently from the previous policies, through construction, investments and operationalization [sic] of the reconstruction council.”
