Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (41834)	9/3/2002 10:11:37 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

>>Iraq Finds Buyers for Illicit Crude By Selcan Hacaoglu The Associated Press HABUR, Turkey -- Tamer Yildirim shifts the gears of his tanker truck, which is carrying 16 tons of Iraqi crude into Turkey. He speeds up and passes another tanker truck also filled with contraband Iraqi crude. Though Iraq is under UN sanctions limiting its oil exports, it bypasses the restrictions by smuggling oil to its neighbor in full view of the international community. And even as the United States threatens war on Iraq, Washington turns a blind eye to the illicit Iraqi oil trade through Turkey -- a key U.S. ally. In the slippery world of diplomacy, Turkey hosts U.S. warplanes monitoring Iraqi skies but -- fearing war could drive its economy deeper into recession -- it is reluctant to back the U.S. call for an attack on Iraq to oust President Saddam Hussein and block Baghdad's development of weapons of mass destruction. Drivers like Yildirim ferry more than 80,000 barrels of Iraqi crude a day into Turkey through the Habur border post -- a point also crossed by UN personnel on their way to Iraq. Experts say Iraqi crude and diesel also are smuggled by tankers overland to Jordan, by pipeline to Syria and, in smaller amounts, by sea to the United Arab Emirates and Iran. Under UN sanctions imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, all Iraqi oil sales must be approved by the United Nations, and the revenues must be used to buy humanitarian goods for the Iraqi people. But U.S. officials suspect that with the hard currency Iraq earns from illicit oil exports, it is buying spare parts for its military, including truck tires and aircraft parts. A U.S. government report in May said Iraq smuggled up to 480,000 barrels of oil a day in March and has earned an estimated $4.3 billion from oil smuggling since 1997. The UN sanctions allow Iraq to export oil only through the southern port of Mina al-Bakr and a pipeline running to the Mediterranean Turkish port of Ceyhan. But at the Habur border crossing -- closer to Baghdad than to Istanbul -- the odors wafting from a thin oil slick on the sun-baked asphalt show that crude also makes its way into Turkey here, with approval of the Turkish government. Past the border, driver Yildirim lights a cigarette and talks about how he shuttles between Iraqi oil fields and Turkish refineries. Nearly 600 tanker trucks loaded with crude pass through Habur every day. "This is a mobile oil pipeline. It nearly takes two weeks to complete a round trip, then it starts all over again," Yildirim said. A top Turkish trade official, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that Turkey does not have UN permission for the oil shipments through Habur. The trade outside UN sanctions is apparently tolerated to help compensate Turkey, which complains that it has lost more than $40 billion in trade with Iraq since the Gulf War. Kenan Veziroglu, head of Turkey's state-run oil company, TPAO, said Turkey agreed to buy 4 million tons of crude a year from Iraq but has been able to bring in only 3.7 million tons because Habur cannot handle more traffic. Proposals for a second border crossing were shelved due to international pressure against expanding trade ties with Iraq. Turkey hopes the embargo against its southern neighbor will be lifted, but realizes its alliance with Washington comes at a cost. Iraq "is a very important country where our business world sees a great potential," Veziroglu said. But "nothing can be said about [the crude trade's] continuation. It can end today."<< themoscowtimes.com