Basra calls anew for deals with Kuwait, Iran to protect fishermen

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: The province of Basra reiterated calls on the organizations concerned to reach agreements with Kuwait and Iran to protect and facilitate the work of fishermen in the Iraqi territorial waters, according to a local official on Thursday. “The local administration in Basra has addressed the organizations concerned and the Iraqi foreign ministry to conclude joint fishing deals with neighboring Kuwait and Iran to protect fishermen from assaults and harassments,” Basra Assistant Governor Ali Hussein Aziz told IraqiNews.com news agency. “These efforts fall within directives by Basra Governor Shaltagh Abboud al-Mayyah to resolve problems facing local fishermen in a bid to develop the fishing sector,” he added. Iraqi fishermen in the district of al-Faw in Basra are vulnerable to repeated excesses by the Iranian and Kuwaiti patrols while practicing their work in the Iraqi territorial waters. The oil-rich port city of Basra, Iraq’s only outlet to waterways, lies 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. AmR (P) 1