Iraq has begun pumping oil through a pipeline to Syria, outside the terms of the United Nations oil-for-food arrangement, in a renewed effort to break UN sanctions. A Syrian oil official said that Iraq started pumping crude through the line, disused since 1982, last Thursday.
“Iraq started pumping on Nov. 16 and the flow is now up to about 150,000 barrels per day of Basrah Light,” the official told Reuters by telephone from Damascus.
Iraq earlier this month vowed to start selling crude to Syria in what diplomats said is part of a sustained effort by Baghdad to shake free of sanctions in place since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Oil-for-food allows Iraq to sell as much crude as it likes in return for humanitarian goods as long as the revenues remain under strict UN control. Iraq's customers pay direct into an escrow account in New York with 30 per cent of the proceeds earmarked for Gulf War reparations.
The United Nations in New York said it had not been notified by Iraq of the Syrian deliveries. Neither Baghdad nor Damascus officially confirmed the sales. Britain urged Syria to ensure that its Iraqi crude purchases were made legal under the terms of the United Nations oil-for-food exchange.
“We need to see the pipeline open as a legal UN outlet under the oil-for-food programme,” said a Foreign Office spokesman. “This is an illegal contravention of sanctions. We are urging the Syrians that the sales be made legal under oil-for-food.”
The United States appears to have been caught out by the Iraqi move. Discussions with US officials in Damascus last week had led Washington to believe that Syria would ensure payments were made through legal UN channels.
( Jordan Times )
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
