Iraqis launched a campaign on social media urging the boycott of Iranian products in response to a reduction in Iranian gas supplies to their country which has contributed to widespread power outages.
The country has been experiencing power outages which the Iraqi ministry of electricity has partially attributed to Iran reducing its gas supplies to Iraq.
Ministry spokesman Ahmed Musa said that gas supplies from Iran were reduced to only around eight million from 50 million cubic meters per day.
This prompted some Iraqis on social media to launch a campaign calling for the boycott of Iranian products in Iraq using an Arabic hashtag that reads “let it spoil.”
“The Iraqi people have decided to punish Iran economically,” one user wrote on Twitter.
Another wrote: “Boycott their products just as they cut off our electricity.”
“Iran wants to humiliate the Iraqi people by cutting off their water and electricity; boycotting its products is a national duty,” another said.
Iran has reduced its supply of gas to Iraq due to Baghdad’s unpaid bills.
Iraq owes Iran more than $5 billion for gas imports, according to the National Iranian Gas Company.
Iraq has said it has not been able to pay its debt to Iran due to banking sanctions that the US reimposed on Iran in 2018.
Washington reimposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran in 2018 after then-President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which had offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
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