RIYADH, 6 August 2004 — Saudi authorities yesterday suspended local trucks from heading to Iraq via Arar due to the deteriorating security conditions in Iraq which is threatening the safety of truck drivers.
A director of one of the Saudi companies working in Iraq, Hazam Al-Jeri, told Al-Eqtisadiyah daily, a sister publication of Arab News, that there are 221 Saudi trucks waiting on the borders with Iraq for permission to enter Iraq.
He added that his company was supervising the transport of 3.2 million liters of refined petroleum products for the Iraqi National Institute.
He noted that 50 Saudi companies transported the same cargo to Iraq on a daily basis. Al-Jeri added that Saudi companies have suspended their trucks from going to Iraq last month until protection was provided. The move followed robbing and vandalizing of 50 Saudi trucks within Iraqi territories.
The region’s transport sector, which delivers supplies to Iraq’s multinational force, has been recently hard hit, with dozens of foreign truckers abducted along the roads into Iraq from Kuwait, Jordan and Turkey.
After a Turkish trucker was shot dead this week, Turkey’s International Transporters’ Association urged its members to immediately stop shipping cargo to US troops in Iraq.
Daoud and Partners, a leading Jordanian firm and key supplier of foodstuffs to the US Army in Iraq, also said it was quitting after two of its drivers were kidnapped.
Seven truck drivers — three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian — are currently held captive by Iraqi kidnappers.
