Iraq questions Saudi’s use of oil port it built

A senior Iraqi official said his country will seek clarifications from Saudi Arabia over the kingdom’s recent use of a Red Sea oil port that was built with Iraqi funds.

According to the official, Baghdad built the port in the 1980s as part of an agreement between the two countries to diversify the sources of Iraqi oil exports, but the use of it was stopped after the Gulf War, Iraq’s Alsumaria news site reported.

The Iraqi official said: “The project included the extension of a strategic oil pipeline from the Basra oil fields in southern Iraq with a capacity of 1.6 million barrels per day and ends in Saudi territory in the port of Majaz, near the Saudi port of Yanbu on the Red Sea.”

He added that according to the agreement Riyadh has no right to use the port without Baghdad’s approval.