Steve Quayle News Alerts

June 10, 2002
By Michael Evans, Defence Editor

SADDAM HUSSEIN is using a railway network linked to Syria for a smuggling operation that is supplying Baghdad with a vast range of military equipment and parts for weapons of mass destruction, intelligence sources say.

The link between Mosul, in northern Iraq, and Aleppo, the second-largest city in Syria, was opened in August 2000.

Freight transported by rail from Syria to Iraq is covered by the oil-for-food programme authorised by the United Nations under which Baghdad is allowed to sell a limited amount of oil to raise money for food, medicine and other humanitarian purposes.

However, intelligence reports disclose that Iraq is using the link to import a range of weaponry, including tanks sold by Bulgaria to Syria some years ago and allegedly diverted by Damascus to Baghdad, and air-defence equipment, Scud missile-guidance systems and surface-to-air missiles, originally bought by Syria from the Czech Republic.

The reports also indicate that Baghdad may be receiving components for its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programme.

During his visit to London last week Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, said: “We know that the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq has had a sizeable appetite for weapons of mass destruction. We know the borders into that country are quite porous, and we know dual-use capabilities have been flowing in, as well as illicit materials that are helpful in their programme for weapons of mass destruction.

“There is not a doubt in the world but that every month that goes by their programmes mature by a month and that is not something that is a happy prospect for that region.”

Improved relations between Syria and Iraq are causing concern because of the perceived risk of banned military or dual-use systems reaching Baghdad under cover.

Syrian ties with Baghdad deteriorated in 1980 when Damascus took Iran’s side in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Syria also joined the US-led multinational force that drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait in 1991. However, there has been a significant rapprochement between the two in recent years.

Iraq has been courting support from Arab countries, notably Syria and Egypt, in its attempt to circumvent the UN sanctions, imposed after the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The Iraqi President has also sought their help in opposing President Bush’s declared intention of overthrowing his regime.

Some intelligence reports have given warning that Syria has become the main channel for smuggling equipment and arms to Iraq through the port of Tartus, from where they are transported along the Aleppo-to-Mosul railway line. In Iraq, the same line connects Mosul with Baghdad and Basra.

To add to Western intelligence concerns, another railway line, linking Iran, Iraq and Syria, is under construction and could be open next year. The new line will run from Tehran to Khorramshar, one of the biggest ports in Iran, to Baghdad and al-Qaim, a town on the Iraqi-Syrian border, then on to Albukamal in Syria and finally Damascus.

Saddam is already involved in an elaborate oil-smuggling operation, using tanker lorries as well as rail links and pipelines, such as the Kirkuk-Banias pipeline which was reopened in November 2000 after being closed for 18 years.

Reports indicate that from Syria the oil has been sold on to Russia, China and Europe.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-321897,00.html