Iraq’s oil minister claims “Iranian oil tankers” are using forged Iraqi documents.
Hayan Abdel-Ghani told state television that vessels stopped by US forces in the Middle East Gulf were found to have “Iraqi shipping manifests”, Reuters reported.
The claim came as US President Donald Trump’s administration restored its “maximum pressure” policy on Iran, seeking to curtail its oil revenue and slow its nuclear programme.
“We received some verbal inquiries about oil tankers being detained in the Gulf by US naval forces carrying Iraqi shipping manifests,” Abdel-Ghani said.
“It turned out that these tankers were Iranian ... and were using forged Iraqi documents. We explained this to the relevant authorities with complete transparency and they also confirmed this.”
He said there had been no formal written communication on the issue.
Iran’s oil ministry denied that its government had used forged official documents.
The official Shana news agency said the claims had come from US officials.
“It's obvious that these allegations by US officials fold into the illegal ... pressure on the nation of Iran and have no basis or credibility,” Shana added.
Reuters reported in December that a fuel oil smuggling network believed to generate at least $1bn a year for Iran and its proxies has prospered in Iraq in recent years. The network is reported to use forged documents.
Abdel-Ghani said Iraqi state oil marketer SOMO sells crude only to companies that own refineries and not to trading firms.
“SOMO operates with full transparency and has committed no wrongdoing in the oil export process,” he added.(Copyright)
