Turkey Uneasy over Iraqi Suspension of Oil ExportsTurkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has expressed concern over adverse effects on Turkey of the Iraqi decision to halt oil exports, reported the Anatolia News Agency on Sunday.The Iraqi decision would most probably increase the price of oil on world markets and this would directly effect the flagging Turkish economy, Ecevit told reporters on his inspection tour of the country's southeast region. The premier indicated that Turkey is a country that is concerned with Iraq most and therefore Turkey wants the U.S. to discuss with it first the details of new sanctions and changes to the existing decade-old sanctions on Iraq. Ecevit said that U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would be arriving in Ankara for talks on Monday. An Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman announced on Saturday that it would halt oil exports starting on Monday morning. The move followed the U.N. Security Council's decision to extend by 30 days the oil-for-food program under which Iraq exports oil and uses revenues to buy specific humanitarian goods under the U.N. supervision. It was reported that Turkey could import Iraqi oil at a price much lower than on international market, and moreover it has been earning an average 19 million U.S. dollars a month from the Iraqi oil flow in pipeline running through Turkish territory. Besides its own Gulf export terminals, Baghdad exports crude oil through a pipeline running from its northern Kirkuk oil fields to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. |
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