The United Arab Emirates has vowed to crackdown on the smuggling of Iraqi oil following two recent oils spills off its north coast.

The UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed al-Nahayan, was quoted by the official news agency, Wham, as saying his country was committed to enforcing UN trade sanctions on Iraq. But as correspondent Frank Gardiner reports from Dubai, the smuggling of Iraqi oil in the Gulf is now big business:

Everybody in the Gulf knew it was going on but until this month the smuggling of Iraqi oil was something of a taboo subject here. Now one of the most prominent ministers in the UAE, has called for an end to this illegal trade.

Sheikh Hamdan says smuggling has recently led to ecological catastrophes and huge material loss, as well as tarnishing the image of the UAE. He was referring to the more than 4,000 tonnes of heavy Iraqi fuel oil that washed up this month on the UAE's beaches, after a barge sank in high seas.

Although Iraq is permitted to sale limited amounts of crude oil in exchange for food and humanitarian supplies, exports of petroleum products like fuel oil, are not included in the so called oil for food deal. But a spokesman for the multi- national Interception Force, which enforces trade sanctions on Iraq in the Gulf, told the BBC that oil smugglers have recently been using Iran's territorial waters to evade capture.

He said a large number of smugglers travel from Iraq to Iran's Gulf port, before sailing on to a third country.

The money to be made from such operations amounted to millions of dollars but since many vessels are in poor repair, it's countries like the UAE that are now paying the cost of cleaning up the oil spills incurred.
 

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