English → Chinese transcript

One of the richest oilfields in the world is in southern Iraq. It's called Majnoon, which means crazy in Arabic. But what's equally crazy is that the revenue from this oilfield and others like it is controlled by the United States.

America doesn't own them. It doesn't pump the crude. But more than two decades after its invasion, it retains influence over Iraq's most important source of income.

This has real world consequences for Iraqi politics and the economy and on how Baghdad balances domestic interests with U.S. expectations. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the U.S. imposed a new financial structure

on energy revenue, mandating that proceeds from oil and gas sales be paid into the Development Fund for Iraq, or DFI. The fund was based at the New York Federal Reserve Bank, so Iraqi oil revenue remained outside Iraq.

The DFI eventually became an account of the Central Bank of Iraq. Legally, this money belongs to Iraq, but operationally it continues to pass through American financial and regulatory systems,

meaning the U.S. controls the financial plumbing through which Iraqi oil revenues flow. On paper, this doesn't violate Iraqi sovereignty, but in practice, it gives the U.S. a semi-permanent hold on Iraq's economy.

From the start, the spending of these funds was plagued by poor oversight. Between 2004 and 2007, the U.S. Department of Defense did not properly account for $2.6 billion of the $9.1 billion, nearly a third,

of Iraq's oil revenue for that period. That's according to the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. It also found that the remaining more than $6 billion was poorly managed.

Not just administrative negligence, it set a precedent that Iraq's own revenues could be administered outside Iraqi institutions. To date, revenue remains in dollar accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,

creating a structural dependency. It goes further. Iraqi government reports suggest U.S. officials have warned Baghdad Washington could restrict Iraq's access to oil revenues

if Iran-aligned political actors make the Iraqi government. Blocking or delaying access to dollar-dominated oil revenue could cripple the economy. Iraq cannot bypass the U.S. dollar system. Its financial system is dollarized,

meaning the local currency's value is pegged, and its central bank and government must comply with U.S. anti-money laundering and sanctions norms to access their own money. Analysts say Washington can use this

as a bargaining chip in negotiations, particularly when it comes to Iraq's relationships with Iran and domestic militia groups. This is not theoretical. It is leverage rooted in Washington's regulatory authority

over the global financial system. There's an important distinction here, as the U.S. does not own Iraqi oil fields. U.S. companies do not control production or export volumes, and Iraq remains responsible for signing oil contracts

and setting output through its national institutions. The leverage is financial and regulatory, not military occupation or seizure of assets, and it gives the U.S. a chokehold over Iraq's core national revenue stream.

It's also a tool of geopolitical pressure, which can be used to influence how Baghdad balances relations with Tehran, Moscow, and domestic political coalitions. In Russia, the U.S. is trying to control the oil, making it harder to sell and less profitable.

In Venezuela, the U.S. effectively holds the oil, and in Iraq, the U.S. holds the money from the oil.