US asks Iraq to shut most Iran border crossings, Iraqi foreign minister says

No framing issues found.

Nov 8 (Reuters) - The US Treasury has asked Iraq to close all border crossings with Iran except for two as part of Washington's policy of increasing economic pressure on Tehran, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said in an interview with Al Jazeera. One of the exceptions is in the Kurdistan region. "There are many official and unofficial border crossings with Iran, and closing all of them would be difficult and would affect our economy.

The Americans are still demanding the closure of the crossings, and we are currently in discussions with them," Hussein said. Last month, Iraq closed the busy Sheeb border crossing with Iran to review security and install detection ‌equipment to stop smuggling. (Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

Read the original article on al-monitor.com

About this analysis

Al-Monitor carries a short Reuters report that the US Treasury has asked Iraq to close all but two of its border crossings with Iran, as Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told Al Jazeera. The article attributes the request to Hussein throughout and gives his own reservations in his words. Nothing in it misleads the reader.

What it gets right

“Iraqi foreign minister says”
The headline keeps the attribution the body gives, so the reader knows the US request is reported by Hussein rather than confirmed by Washington.
“closing all of them would be difficult and would affect our economy”
The article quotes Iraq's own objection directly, so the reader hears the cost of the US demand from the party asked to carry it out.
“as part of Washington's policy of increasing economic pressure on Tehran”
The article names the request as US economic pressure on Iran, so the reader understands the closures as Washington's policy, not a neutral security measure.

Spot something we missed? Report this article

More from Al-Monitor

Everything we scored from Al-Monitor