Iraqis Accuse Kuwait of Stealing Oil (Plus ca change) [View All]

[Barrett808]

Iraqis Accuse Kuwait of Stealing Oil
By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi legislators accused Kuwait of stealing their oil as well as chipping away at their national territory on the border — allegations similar to those used by Saddam Hussein to justify his invasion of Kuwait that began 15 years ago Tuesday.

An Iraqi delegation was scheduled to head to Kuwait on Wednesday discuss the incidents along the Kuwaiti border.

"There have been violations such as digging horizontal oil wells to pump Iraq oil," legislator Jawad al-Maliki, chairman of the parliament's Security and Defense Committee, told the National Assembly on Tuesday.

In such horizontal wells, instead of drilling straight down, Kuwaitis would drill at an angle either going into subterranean Iraqi territory or sucking oil out of pools from Iraqi territory. He also said Kuwaitis have taken territories up to half a mile inside Iraq.

"We believe that we have overcome the past and that we opened a new page of positive relations. These relations have to be respected by Kuwait," said al-Maliki, a member of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's Dawa Party.

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http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050802/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_kuwait