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To: excardog who wrote (82548)	12/23/2000 11:55:01 AM
From: excardog	Respond to of 95453

U.S. 'purposely ignores Iraq oil flow to Syria' New York \|Reuters \| 23-12-00 Print friendly format \| Email to Friend The United States is ignoring reports that Iraq is smuggling oil to Syria to avoid antagonizing Arab public opinion at a critical stage in Middle East peace talks, analysts said yesterday. Iraq last month began shipping about 150,000 barrels of oil daily to Syria via a pipeline that had been disused for 18 years, according to oil industry sources. Raad Alkadiri, an analyst with Washington-based Petroleum Finance Co. (PFC) said only the most liberal interpretations of UN Security Council resolutions would permit the oil flow. Iraq has been under sanctions since it invaded Kuwait in August 1990. It is allowed to sell oil providing the revenues go to a UN-administered account to be used for food, medicine and other supplies to alleviate the impact of the embargoes on ordinary Iraqis. While Washington is diligent about policing Iraqi smuggling, it sees practical reasons to allow the Syrian connection to go ahead, Alkadiri said. "There is evidence that Iraqi oil is flowing to Syria and despite hinting displeasure, the United States has not criticized Syria for busting sanctions or taken punitive measures," said Alkadiri. The U.S. State Department said it has Syrian assurances that Syria would not break the sanctions, which Alkadiri believed fell just short of saying no Iraqi oil exports were taking place. Iraqi and Syrian officials have denied that exports are taking place, saying only that the pipeline is being tested for future use. "The Syrian government is continuing to tell us that it doesn't intend to break the sanctions," a State Department official said yesterday. "To our knowledge they haven't reached a final agreement with Iraq." By remaining quiet about the oil smuggling to Syria, the United States is keeping open an outlet for Arab anger over American policy toward the Middle East, said Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat professor for peace and development at the University of Maryland. "It allows Arab governments to stay on board American policy toward the peace process by challenging the sanctions on Iraq," he said. U.S. President Bill Clinton met Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at the White House on Wednesday in an effort to jump-start peacemaking efforts, with negotiations expected to continue meeting through today. Security Council members have said it would approve oil flows to Syria providing Damascus sent the United Nations an official notice and the revenues were routed through the UN oil-for-food humanitarian program. Until this occurs, however, U.N. resolutions only allow two ports to handle Iraqi crude, one in Turkey and the other on Iraq's Gulf coast. Iraq has suspended oil shipments from Turkey since December 1 and for two weeks cut them from its Gulf port at Mina Al Bakr. The exports cut is motivated by efforts to ease sanctions on Baghdad and are only masked by rows over pricing of Iraq's crude with UN officials since mid-November, Alkadiri said. The exports of Kirkuk crude oil to Syria is certainly taking place and is clearly a violation of U.N. resolutions, according to Western diplomats on the UN Iraqi sanctions committee as well as oil analysts. Alkadiri said Iraqi crude is pumped to Syria and put in Syrian refineries. This then allows Syria to sell oil that otherwise would be used in its refineries. He said that while there is speculation, there is no clear evidence that Syria then makes payments to Baghdad in some fashion. "These exports are going on, no question," said an Asian diplomat on the UN sanctions committee. "It takes away from money that otherwise would pay for the humanitarian program in Iraq." Telhami, also a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, said Washington was being cagey because it needed to be. "Challenging Syria also means challenging other Arab states and that means Saudi Arabia," Telhami said. "Challenging Syria today further endangers alienating Arab public opinion more broadly." "This is a side effect of the Intifada in that it has raised the level of anti-Americanism in the region and limited the options that are available to American foreign policy," he said. PFC's Alkadiri also noted there was no easy way for the United States to police smuggling from Iraq to neighbouring nations, for logistic and political reasons. The crude oil pipeline runs from the Kirkuk region in northern Iraq to Syria's Mediterranean coast near Banias and was shut in 1982 when Damascus sided with Iran during the Iran-Iraq War. Both Alkadiri and Telhami said the U.S. has also turned a blind eye to long-standing smuggling of Iraqi crude to Turkey because of its friendship with Ankara. However, the U.S. has made some moves at the United Nations to explore the Syrian oil flows. On Thursday, Russia and France, sympathetic to Iraq, blocked an effort by the U.S. and Britain in a UN committee overseeing sanctions to ask Syria about the oil. Instead the chairman of the committee, Netherlands UN ambassador Peter van Walsum will speak to his Syrian colleague.