GULF NEWS:

"Kuwait warns Iraq as oil theft accusations grow"

Baghdad (Agencies) - Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing its oil for the third day running yesterday, with one report saying it involved 300,000 barrels of crude a day taken from oil fields in the border area. Kuwait, meanwhile, warned Baghdad against taking any action similar to the 1990 invasion.

Protecting its oil interests was one of the reasons behind the Iraqi invasion of its tiny neighbour. "The theft of Iraqi oil by Kuwait is not new," Saad Qassem Hammudi, a senior member of the ruling Baath Party said. "It is a fact established in Iraqi documents and reports since 1990."

Hammudi said Kuwaiti Crown Prince Saad Al Abdallah Al Sabah "recognised the theft in 1990 during negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait in Saudi Arabia," preceding the invasion. "The differences between the two were only over the amount of crude stolen," he added.

[NOTE: reportedly, the Kuwaitis were willing to reach agreement with Iraq on this at the time, and pay their belated dues to Saddam for costs incurred during the drawn-out Iraq-Iran war; before doing so, they asked for CIA advice. They were encouraged to tie the offer to a formal recognition of the Kuwait-Iraq border. For Saddam Hussein, who {sigh!} accurately saw Kuwait as a 'lost province', ripped from Iraq at the end of British occupation to provide a secure source of oil for the Royal Navy, that was the last straw...!]

Kuwait has denied stealing and accused Baghdad of trying to start another war in the region. The Baghdad government newspaper Al Jumhuriya said yesterday the amount of oil being stolen was between 300,000 and 350,000 barrels a day.

It said the oil was taken with U.S. backing from the Rumeila, Zubeir and Basra fields in southern Iraq. Hammudi also rejected U.S. threats to resort to force if Iraq menaces Kuwait.

"Is it forbidden to denounce the theft of our resources or are we threatening regional security by demanding our right?" he asked. Hammudi said the theft of Iraqi crude was part of U.S. oppression against Baghdad assisted by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait which shelter U.S. and British warplanes.

"The UN Security Council and the Arab League should intervene to halt the aggression and put an end to the pillage of Iraq's riches," he said. Meanwhile, Kuwaiti Defence Minister Sheikh Salem Al Sabah warned yesterday that Iraqi leaders would pay a "heavy price" if they commit a "military folly" against the state.

A Kuwait Defence Ministry official said that since the Gulf War, Kuwait has maintained naval, air and ground forces on full alert. "We are fully ready and also coordinate regularly with our allies. Our self-confidence is high and we trust the arrangements and precautions taken," the official said.

A senior Western army officer has said in August that Saddam "has been awfully quiet for some time now. Maybe he is waiting for the American (presidential) elections to enter their final stretch in September or October to return to his old habits and create a new crisis to re-test our resolve."

"It is that time of year again," a diplomat said. "This time it heated up quickly and we arrived at threats to use force in a very short period compared to previous clashes."

http://pub3.ezboard.com/fdownstreamventurespetroleummarkets.showMessage?topicID=1503.topic

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), September 20, 2000

Answers

My take on this is:
We steal Iraq's oil
Irag complains
We threaten to bomb them again to shut them up.

Next, I imagine, we'll have to take
over Iraq and their refineries to stop
them from complaining. :-'

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), September 20, 2000.