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A top Iraqi official has said the US formally asked Baghdad to shut every border crossing with Iran except two as Washington ramps up economic pressure on Tehran.

Getting into it: Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told Al Jazeera in an interview that aired Sunday that the request came from the US Treasury, which wants one crossing left open in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and a second somewhere else, though neither has been picked yet. He said it’s still not clear if the limits would cover visitors, trade or everything crossing the border.

Hussein’s comments came a day after US Central Command launched a new task force, called Iron Gate, to stop Iran from moving advanced weapons and sanctioned goods over land and across the Caspian Sea.

CENTCOM said its naval blockade has already cost Iran more than $25 billion in blocked crude sales. Hussein put Iraq’s own losses at about $60 billion from roughly four months at the start of the war when it couldn’t move oil through the Strait of Hormuz. Iraq has since reached an understanding with the US to ship oil through a lane near Oman, and exports recovered to about 3.5 million barrels a day in October.

“Closing the border crossings could be a punishment for Iran, but it would also hurt Iraq,” Hussein said. “Trade would stop, movement would stop, and that would affect us economically.”

Hussein also warned the fighting could start back up and said Baghdad is against anyone using Iraqi territory to attack its neighbors. He said Iraq and Iran are jointly looking into an attack on Saudi Arabia that Baghdad was told came from inside Iraq, close to the Iranian border.

This all comes as Iraq tries to balance its ties with the US and neighboring Iran, a day after a drone attack on the Khor Mor gas field knocked out power to most of Iraq’s Kurdistan region.