BAGHDAD – An Iraqi politician has called on the Baghdad government to open a thorough investigation into the smuggling of crude oil from the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan to the territories occupied by the Zionist regime.
“Oil smuggling from Kurdistan to Tel Aviv, which is carried out under the supervision of the ruling parties in Erbil [the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan], is no longer a secret,” independent Kurdish politician Othman Hassan Pasha told al-Maalomah news agency on Friday. “Three oil tankers are now operating for that goal in Turkish ports and the whole process has the full support of the Turkish government.” He added, “Turkey is involved in the matter in exchange for large financial discounts.” An estimated 40,000 to 80,000 barrels of crude oil a week arrive at Israeli ports.
The Financial Times in its nelk 2019 article wrote that the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan is secretly selling oil to the Israeli regime at heavily discounted prices. The oil, produced in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah and then transferred to the Turkish ports of Mersin and Ceyhan – according to the British newspaper – and from there is loaded onto tankers that make it to the large port of Ashdod in southern occupied Palestine.