Tehran has informed the United Nations it had tried to intercept an Iraqi tanker carrying smuggled oil in the Persian Gulf.
Iranian Ambassador to the UN Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian announced the report in a letter addressed to the UN committee in charge of supervising the "oil-for-food" program for Iraq, saying "the tanker containing the contraband Iraqi oil was transiting Iranian waters in the Arabian Gulf on January 4."
The letter, which was circulated in the United Nations by the committee on Friday, said that the tanker refused to honor an Iranian marine patrol's demand to stop and, instead, fled to the Al-Bakr port in the northern Arabian Gulf. Iraq, under UN sanctions since 1990 for its invasion of Kuwait, has claimed these sanctions have brought innumerable hardships on its people.
Faced with increasing international opposition, the United Nations devised a plan in 1996 to let Baghdad sell some of its oil to meet humanitarian needs such as medicine and food. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
