Kuwait's coast guard has seized an Iraqi oil tanker suspected of busting the UN embargo slapped on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of the emirate, a newspaper reported Saturday, November 3.
The Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai Al-Aam said the Iraqi vessel was smuggling 1,200 tons of oil when it was seized in Kuwait's territorial waters on Friday. The tanker's crew was arrested and the vessel towed to Kuwait's Shuaiba port, south of Kuwait City, the newspaper added.
Kuwait last year seized more than 20 vessels and small tankers of various sizes carrying oil and goods from Iraq to the Gulf Arab monarchies. The ships and goods are normally sold at auction. Crew members, mostly from the Indian subcontinent, are detained and fined before being deported to their home countries.
Baghdad has been under embargo since its August 1990 invasion of Kuwait and is authorized to export crude only under strict UN control to buy food, medicine and other essential goods. — (AFP, Kuwait City)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
