CRISIS IN THE PERSIAN GULF : Food Being Rerouted to Iraq, Trucker Says

Some food is reaching Baghdad overland from Lebanon in violation of U.N. sanctions against Iraq, a Lebanese truck driver said Saturday.

The driver, who asked not to be identified, said trucks were taking food such as rice and sugar from Christian East Beirut to Damascus, Syria, where the manifests were changed to show Jordan as the destination.

When trucks reached Jordan, the manifests were again changed with Iraq put down as the final destination, he said.

“Please don’t write my name or the Syrians will cut my head off,” the driver said before passing Jordan’s eastern border post of Ruweished into Iraq. He was hauling marble, but said he had taken a cargo of rice to Baghdad last week.

The driver did not say how many food shipments got through, and it seemed unlikely the trade through Syria, Iraq’s foe, could be large.

Few trucks were on the road to Iraq on Saturday compared to the steady flow on the route before U.N. sanctions and Western warships began to deter Iraq-bound goods from reaching Jordan.

The driver said bread lines were developing and no milk was on sale in Baghdad.