AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The Arab countries of the region, despite having valuable oil resources and mines and a special strategic position, and on the other hand having free relations with America and Western countries, are always grappling with economic problems.
In recent months, reports of the smuggling of Arab countries' oil, including Iraq and Syria, to the occupied territories have been raised in various media.
In recent days, Al-Maalomah, an Iraqi media outlet, published a report stating that a network of oil smugglers with connections among influential parties in northern Iraq, Syrian armed groups, and international intermediaries transfer Iraqi and Syrian oil through Turkish soil to the occupied territories.
A Syrian source also, in a conversation with Al-Maalomah news agency, claimed that hundreds of tankers carrying smuggled oil from Iraq and Syria move toward Turkey, and after entering this country, the oil cargoes are transferred by sea to the occupied territories. According to this source, the smuggled oil is sold at a 40 to 50 percent discount compared to official prices on global exchanges. He stated that the smuggling networks are directly connected with some influential Kurdish parties and Turkish-affiliated Syrian armed groups. This source added, "After reaching Turkish ports, the oil cargoes are sent directly by cargo ships to ports controlled by the Zionist regime."
This source told Al-Maalomah news agency, "The smuggling networks, exploiting the disruption of the official export pipeline, use complex mechanisms to transfer petroleum products and fuel entirely through tankers and trucks. To facilitate their movement and passage through valleys and desert crossings without arousing suspicion, these mafias resort to swapping the original plates of Iraqi and Kurdish vehicles with forged or altered Turkish plates."
He added that smuggling activity goes beyond official crossings such as the Ibrahim Khalil crossing and the Fishkhabur/Semalka area and extends through the rugged border villages of Dohuk province and narrow land and river points in the border triangle where boats sometimes cross through the Tigris River, and reaches difficult mountain routes for smuggling valuable goods such as cigarettes.
Luxury goods and tobacco are smuggled in large quantities to evade taxes and duties, which reveals "close field coordination between smuggling networks and armed groups controlling northern Syria, especially the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade and groups loyal to Ankara, to provide security and protection for tanker routes and fuel distribution on Syrian soil, in addition to activating networks for human trafficking and illegal migration toward Turkey and Europe in exchange for sums between $4,000 and $5,000 per person."
Smuggling of Iraqi resources and security and health threats
This source warned about the serious consequences affecting Iraq's national, economic, and health security, because these networks exploit the lack of connection between the region's border crossings and the ASYCUDA electronic customs union system adopted in Baghdad. This allows the passage of goods of unknown origin without electronic tracking and gives traders an illegal profit margin of between 30 and 60 percent in tax evasion, in addition to filling markets with electronic devices and spare parts without being subject to official regulations.
This source also exposed a health disaster involving the entry of thousands of types of untested medicines, bypassing the project to localize the pharmaceutical industry, as well as the entry of prohibited shipments of expired frozen meat and chicken through the Dohuk crossings and their storage in hidden warehouses, where they are mixed with fresh meat and distributed to restaurants and butcher shops to hide signs of spoilage, and finally reach citizens away from the eyes of supervision and inspection.
Resistance groups' warning about the plundering of Iraq's oil resources
The smuggling of Iraqi oil to the occupied territories, in circumstances where the Iraqi people live under harsh living conditions, has always been protested by resistance groups, and resistance leaders have asked the central Iraqi government to be sensitive to the financial and oil assets of the Iraqi people and to prevent the plundering of Iraq's resources.
Sheikh Akram Al-Kaabi, the secretary-general of Iraq's Al-Nujaba Movement, said a while ago about the theft of Iraqi oil, "Some justifications in public opinion regarding important and fateful issues that consider Iraq dependent on the axis of America's evil, especially by following the decisions of 'Tom Barrack,' the Zionist mafia businessman, about the PMF and the resistance, all revolve around one axis. The revenues from the sale of Iraqi oil are received by America." He added, "Confronting this process is one of the most important tasks that the Iraqi resistance has undertaken. We will not remain silent against the plundering of the Iraqi nation's assets, in any form and under any title."
Al-Maalomah, continuing its report, referring to the accusations raised about oil smuggling and the transfer of revenues from it outside the country, has called for the serious entry of the central Iraqi government and the country's supervisory and judicial bodies to confront these activities. The report emphasizes that the continuation of oil smuggling has made the necessity of decisive action to end this violation and prevent the exit of Iraq's national resources more urgent than ever.
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