Tension heightens amid claims of oil-smuggling from Iraq to Israel via Jordan

Iraq’s Ministry of Energy smuggles oil to Israel through Jordan, a Kurdish member of the parliament said last week in a shocking announcement that was followed by an exchange of accusations among Iraqi officials.

Kurdish MP Farhad al-Atroushi made the claim, which was vehemently denied by Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahrastani and Jordan's Information and Communication Minister Rakan al-Majali.

“There are some sides that want to spoil the Iraqi-Jordanian relations,” and do not intend to see them progressing after they blossomed during the Arab Summit that was held in Baghdad on March, Majali told Aswat al-Iraq agency on Saturday.

“Our relation with Iraq is historical, cultural, political, and commercial, and we will always stay cordial,” he said.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday denied the Kurdish claim and unleashed his criticism of oil-smuggling done by the federal Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.

Maliki said that the Iraqi central government informed the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan by showing “pictures” of oil tankers smuggling the oil, Sumaria News cited him as saying in an interview with a Kurdish newspaper, Thawina.

The premier said that the government attempted to stop the oil-smuggling process but “was shocked to see the Peshmerga [Kurdistan armed fighters] surrounding the oil wells.”

Shwan Mohammed Taha, a member of parliament from the Kurdistan coalition bloc, was reported by Aswat al-Iraqi agency on Wednesday as saying that Maliki should pay more attention to the deteriorating security and services marring the Iraqi citizens instead of focusing on oil-smuggling in Kurdistan.

Accusation over Iraqi oil smuggling gets complicated when Iran is also involved.

On Tuesday, the semi Iranian official FARS agency revealed the presence of documents that prove the smuggling of Iraqi oil to Israel via Kurdistan, and that the revenues were collected by high-ranking Kurdish officials.

The agency said that “there are local sources that have documents proving that the Kurds are smuggling oil to Israel and (others) in a clandestine and illegal way.”

Shahrastani hails from the Iraqi National Alliance, a political bloc that is considered to be a good ally to Tehran. He has previously accused the Kurdish government of smuggling oil to Iran.

He said Kurdistan’s oil-smuggling to Iran has caused Iraq to lose $6 billion of its public money.

But the Kurdish MP Atroushi also accused Shahrastni of smuggling oil to Iran.

Atroushi’s Kurdish bloc is currently collecting signatures to grill Shahrastni over corruption charges.