Ahmed Abdul Sattar Al-Salehi, a member of the Anbar Alliance, said on Friday that Saudi Arabia has been controlling an Iraqi oil pipeline for more than four decades, even though the project was fully funded by Iraq.
Speaking to Dinar Opinions, Al-Salehi said that successive Iraqi governments since 2003 have failed to recover the oil pipeline linked to Al-Mu’ajiz Port. According to him, the pipeline was completed in the 1980s using Iraqi funds, but Iraq has not regained control of it.
He stated that the pipeline became operational in the late 1980s and that its first oil shipment was loaded before it was taken over by Saudi Arabia in 1991 during a period of instability and security challenges in Iraq.
Al-Salehi also claimed that some Sunni politicians have avoided discussing the issue for reasons he described as well known, without providing further details.
He criticized the Iraqi Foreign Ministry for what he described as a lack of action on the matter, arguing that the pipeline represents an important economic route for Iraq. He said that regaining it could reduce the need for new pipeline projects through Jordan or Syria, since the existing infrastructure was already completed and funded by Iraq.
