The oil-for-food deal allows legitimate shipments of food and medicines into Iraq but does not allow ships to bring back any cargo, Vice Admiral Thomas B. Fargo, Commander of the United States Fifth Fleet and head of US Naval Forces Central Command said in Dubai yesterday. He was speaking in light of the reported increase in vessels heading out or Iraq seized with Iraqi diesel on board, after the United Nations oil-for-food resolution was passed.
"UN Resolution 986 is not an easing of sanctions, the Admiral said, while speaking to Gulf News aboard the USS Nicholson. Only seven bulk tankers have loaded crude oil from Mina al Bakr terminal with UN approval since mid-December when the oil-for-food deal went into effect. The aim of the Resolution is to allow the sale of Iraqi oil to procure food and medicine for the Iraqi people, Fargo said.
"What it does not allow is for goods to be brought back from Iraq, as these could go towards the reconstruction of Iraqi military capability," he said - in particular, not 'contraband' fuel, which sells at $ 75,000 for a 1,000 tonne shipment or coveted Iraqi dates, according to sources.
A network of smugglers is paying protection money to individuals who guarantee safe passage through Iranian territorial waters and sailing close to the coastline in waters too shallow for UN vessels to police. Until now, 60,000 metric tonnes of diesel fuel has been reportedly smuggled out. Despite notices to shipping firms spelling out what is permissible cargo, three ships have been caught smuggling in as many months.
On February 4, the USS Nicholson impounded a vessel carrying diesel from Iraq which had ingeniously repainted its water-line. On January 26, the USS Reid intercepted a tug towing a barge. While the tug escaped, the barge has been sequestered.
A third vessel, the UAE-flagged Al Mannal, a 130 ft dhow, is a repeated sanctions violator and had attempted to carry 7,000 tyres, 600 batteries, several hundred computers and thousands and thousands of vehicle spare parts under the cover of carrying food and medicines in return for payment in diesel oil.
The Admiral said all Arab Gulf Co-operation Council, AGCC, states had been supportive of the UN move to enforce sanctions, in place since 1990. Contrary to common perception, the sanctions were being enforced by a multi-national force comprising Britain, New Zealand, Australia and now Canada, he said. "AGCC states have accepted ships diverted by the multi-national force and they are all working hard to find a proper, legal procedure to penalise them." (The Gulf News)
ANCIENT CAPITAL DISCOVERED IN FUJAIRAH
A large fortress which was the capital of the region around southern Fujairah nearly 3,000 years ago has been discovered by a General Motors-sponsored team of Australian archaeologists working under the direction of Professor Dan Potts.
The seat of an ancient king or tribal leader, the massive rectangular stone enclosure measuring 100.0 metres by 50.0 metres, has walls almost 2.5m thick and an elaborate entrance. Situated at Awhala, about an hour's drive south of Fujairah, the fortress is the most substantial fortification ever found on a prehistoric site in the Gulf region.
Scientific analysis of three carbon samples taken from the site last year yielded dates of around 800 BC. "South Eastern Arabia at that time probably consisted of a large number of small states or polities similar to the sheikhdoms of the last few centuries and Awhala was undoubtedly the capital of one such region," explained Professor Potts.
The unusual fortification may have been inspired by the walls of the Assyrian (Northern Iraqi) cities of Nineveh, Nimrud or Assur, Potts believes. "A text from Nineveh dating 640 BC records the visit of several rulers of the Gulf region, including a king from Izki in what is now Oman, to the court of the Assyrian Emperor Assurbanipal."
Huge numbers of broken storage jars uncovered at the dig, which is supported by the Fujairah Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage, suggest that the fortress served as a redistribution centre for the region's produce. These discoveries, along with others at GM-sponsored excavations at Sharm in Fujairah and Muweilah in Sharjah, call for a radical reappraisal of society and the economy 3,000 years ago, says Potts.
The work at Muweilah, supported by the Sharjah Department of Antiquities, has uncovered the earliest iron known anywhere in the Gulf. Dated from approximately 2,750 years ago, the iron blade discovered at the site south of Sharjah Airport is the first use of that metal in what archaeologists conventionally refer to as the 'Iron Age'.
The abundance of copper in the Hajar mountains meant that the people of south-eastern Arabia continued to use bronze long after their neighbours in Iran, Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine were forging iron for tools and weaponry. The possibility that the Muweilah iron was imported cannot be ruled out.
The excavations at Sharm, between Dibba and Bidya, have revealed an entirely unknown type of Iron Age greyware pottery which imitates the carved stone vessels of the time. "We now have a wide range of Iron Age decorative motifs incises in grey pottery which raises a whole host of questions about the site," says the American-born professor. "Was real stone too expensive, too difficult to come by or restricted to certain echelons of society?"
Archaeologist Michelle Ziolkowski, a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, plans to initiate a programme of residue analysis to detect those fluids, fats, aromatics or perfumes which may have been held in these vessels and subsequently absorbed into their walls.
Alan Batey, Regional Director of General Motors, commented, "We are very pleased that the Australian archaeologists have once again added considerably to the knowledge about these ancient civilisations in this area." Although Professor Potts has been excavating in the UAE for ten years, his University of Sydney team has been substantially enlarged under GM archaeology sponsorship for the past four seasons, enabling work to be carried out on two or three sites simultaneously.
In previous expeditions, the archaeologists were abel to provide a vivid picture of the lives of the first permanent settlers in what is now the UAE from their excavations at the 5,000-year-old Tell Abraq fortress on the Sharjah border with Umm al Qaiwain. Last year, they mapped out the immense copper mining industry that existed on the East Coast 3,000 years ago. (The Emirates News, The Gulf Today, the Gulf News and the Khaleej Times)
HALF A MILLION AGCC GRADUATES PREDICTED ANNUALLY FROM 2022
The editor of a widely-circulated economic magazine in the Middle East has predicted that the Arab Gulf Co-operative Council, AGCC, members will produce at least 500,000 university graduates every year in 25 years' time. Edmund O'Sullivan, Editor-in Chief of the Middle East Economic Digest, MEED cautioned, however, that with the predicted huge turnout of graduates, many of them may not be able to find jobs unless the region faces up the challenge of technology transfer.
He added that the extent to which the AGCC exploits technology for its own benefit would spell "the difference between affluence and poverty." O'Sullivan will address the First Middle East Conference on 'Technology Evaluation and Transfer' from March 9 to 12 at the Sheraton Dubai Hotel. He said the event was "of the utmost importance".
Organised by the Institute for International Research, the event comprises a two-day conference and a one-day workshop on ways to develop technology-based projects in the AGCC. O'Sullivan said that unlike most other parts of the world, the AGCC's natural resources gave it time to transfer suitable technology.
"However, there is no reason to wait. Technology has never been as available as it is today and already in the Gulf some sectors such as petrochemicals, telecommunications and financial services have mastered the best and latest technology available."
John Roberts of Methinks Ltd., an Edinburgh-based consultancy, who will be one of the keynote speakers in next month's conference, commented, "The problem with the Gulf has been that it has chosen simply to purchase equipment. However, in recent years, there have been some instances in which the region has become seriously interested in understanding the technology."
The process of technology transfer, according to Roberts, was likely to be encouraged by new developments in the oil and gas industry, adding that these include the Qatar General Petroleum Corporation's policy of creating strategic alliances with contractors who will not just transfer technology but also invest in training nationals. Similarly, Kuwait's study of the possible foreign participation in oil exploration and production was partly motivated by considerations of technology transfer.
Uwe Jahnke, Chairman of the Bahrain-based Devcorp International, said each country in the region would have to devise its own policies to encourage technology transfer. "I don't think one can look to any regional organisations to make technology transfer happen. Individual countries will have to decide for themselves how they want to encourage the process by providing incentives or investment in education," Jahnke explained.
"Unless there is a greater valued placed on education, the Middle East runs the serious risk of being left behind technologically and economically," Janhke said, while stressing that education was a critical concern. (The Emirates News, other papers)
AGCC STATES 'SHOULD COPY ASIAN ECONOMIES
Gulf states should imitate Asian economic models to boost prosperity which is a better guarantee of stability than excessive security measures, the Bahraini premier said very recently. "Many industries moved from the country of origin to Asian countries to cut the cost of production and eventually prices," Bahraini Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al Khalifa told Kuwait's English-language Arab Times.
"So why can't the Gulf states pave the way and create favourable circumstances to attract such industries?" the premier said in an interview, also carried by its sister Arabic daily Al Seyassah. "Yes, stability normally precedes prosperity and in some cases leads to it but we must not exaggerate our security arrangements at the expense of prosperity," he said, after a two-month tour is south-east Asian countries.
He added: "We must free ourselves of excessive and unnecessary security measures that would only weaken the economy and delay prosperity. We must realise that prosperity eventually leads to security and perpetuates it." Bahrain has faced internal unrest in which at lead 26 people have died since December 1994. He said that those who have participated in this violence "have now realised their mistakes and how important it is to achieve stability and prosperity in the country."
Arab Gulf states - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman - and the private sector have the financial reserves to promote and finance new local industry but, instead tend to focus on investment abroad, he said. "I believe Bahrain is prepared to accommodate many projects through joint ventures with other Gulf countries," he said. (Agence France-Presse, AFP)