A British navy frigate intercepted and boarded an Iraqi vessel trying to smuggle oil in violation of the United Nations embargo against the Baghdad regime, Britain's ministry of defense said Thursday.
The frigate, HMS Portland, stopped the other boat in the north of the Gulf Tuesday after it had left Iraqi territorial waters.
On board, they found 3,100 tons of diesel oil.
It was the 51st ship to be intercepted by coalition forces this year and found to contain illegal goods, Lieutenant Commander Steve Tatham told AFP.
He was not in a position to say where the boat was heading when it was stopped, however added that a possible destination was the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Baghdad has been under a UN embargo since the end of the Gulf War in 1991, but under an oil-for-food program, which was recently extended, it is allowed controlled exports of oil to enable it to buy food and medicine for the people of Iraq.
However, it has secretly earned at least 6.6 billion dollars over the past five years from illegal oil transactions, including smuggling and unauthorized surcharges on UN-sanctioned exports, a US congressional investigation has found.
Just last March, AFP added, the Iraqis were using these routes to illicitly ship out of the country up to 480,000 barrels of oil a day, according to the report released Wednesday by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the United States Congress,
It stated a multilateral naval task force patrolling the waters of the Gulf interdicts only about 25 percent of the oil smuggled by sea.
The task force currently comprises Australian, British and US vessels. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
