Saudi Arabia told the UN in a letter released Monday, June 11, that it had expropriated the 1.65 million barrel a day pipeline built to carry Iraqi crude oil across Saudi territory.
Saudi Arabia disconnected the pipeline after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, and it has not been used since then.
In a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the Saudi ambassador to the United Nations, Fawzi bin Abdul Majeed Shobokshi, said Iraq's threats of aggression had "destroyed any rationale" for maintaining the pipeline.
The pipeline, "including the pipes themselves, the pumping stations, the storage tanks, the maritime terminal at Mu'jiz, the communications system and the loading facilities, will revert in its entirety to the government of Saudi Arabia with effect from the date of this letter," he wrote.
The letter was dated June 4 and released Monday. — (AFP)
© Agence France Presse
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
