WASHINGTON — A former Iraqi finance minister who received an “International Women of Courage Award” at an event headlined by then-first lady Jill Biden and then-Secretary of State Tony Blinken has landed on the FBI terrorist watchlist.
Taif Sami Mohammed al-Shakarchi, who received the award in March 2022, was celebrated as a “front-line leader against corrupt practices” — but is now banned from entering the US as a security threat, Fox News first reported Friday.
The IWOC Award “recognizes women from around the globe who have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality, and the empowerment of women and girls, in all their diversity – often at great personal risk and sacrifice,” the department noted in its 2022 release including al-Shakarchi.
State Department spokesman Dylan Johnson said in a statement, “While the Biden State Department shamefully celebrated and awarded foreigners who threaten our nation, the Trump State Department revokes their visas and ensures these individuals are removed from our country.”
“Under President Trump and Secretary Rubio, suspected terrorists will never be allowed to remain in the United States.”
What al-Shakarchi allegedly did to land on the list was not mentioned in the report, though her alleged links to Iran and Iran-backed militias in Iraq previously drew headlines.
Her visa also was canceled, the State Department said, and she’s no longer in the US.
Al-Shakarchi served as Iraq’s finance minister from October 2022 until last month.
The Biden State Department had previously touted her as Iraq’s “Iron Woman,” for having “been integral in preventing and deterring budget corruption in Iraq.”
Despite being honored for fighting corruption, the publication IraqiNews reported this month that she had been “put on a judicial wanted list as authorities broaden a corruption probe.”
Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Greg Steube (R-Fla.) last year accused al-Shakarchi of being a “key enabler of terrorist funding in Iraq,” writing in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that many prominent Iraqis and Iraq-based banks were “launder[ing] US dollars on behalf of Iran and its proxies.”
The State Department action comes the same week as the Treasury Department unveiled “Operation Economic Outcast” to sever Iran’s financial links with other countries to weaken Tehran’s hand in peace talks.
