Iraq Affirms Ownership of Oil Pipeline in Saudi ArabiaA spokesman of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry on Monday affirmed Iraq's ownership of an oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia, the Iraqi News Agency reported.The spokesman was quoted as saying that the 1,100-kilometer pipeline, which carries Iraqi crude from south Iraq to the Red Sea via Saudi Arabia, was established according to agreements signed between the two countries in the 1980s, with Iraq bearing all cost of the pipeline at over 2 billion U.S. dollars. Saudi Arabia earlier said that the oil pipeline originally belongs to it. The spokesman said Saudi Arabia has no right to claim the pipeline and its action is no more than an illegal impoundment, adding that Iraq has legal evidence to prove its ownership of the pipeline. Iraq has provided such evidence to the United Nations and the Arab League, he added. Iraq demands compensations from Saudi Arabia for losses it sustained as a result of the Saudi government's decision to suspend the Iraqi oil pipeline inflow via its territories on August 13, 1990, the spokesman noted. Saudi Arabia recently said in a message to the U.N. that it impounded the Iraqi oil pipeline whose production capacity was 1.56 million barrels per day. The pipeline was in full operation only for a limited period of time between September 1989 and August 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait. |
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