Central Bank of Iraq's Urgent Announcement May 9th 2025 URGENT

The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) has announced that pilgrims can purchase dollars through designated banks and companies in Baghdad and other provinces.

The process involves exchanging Iraqi dinars for US dollars at the branches of participating banks and companies.

Further details and a list of the authorized entities are available on the CBI's official platform. We can only hope that this procedure continues once the value of the IQD floats to an acceptable level against the U.S. Dollar.

We are watching Iraq's policies and procedures to determine our course of action for exchanging the Iraqi Dinar for the U.S. Dollar or for the Turkish Lira.

We only need a Level 2 Travel Alert from the U.S. State Department.  As you know, the FM asked that the travel ban be lifted when he was in Washington, D.C. Oh yes, you will also need a Passport.