The former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, has said he knew nothing about any oil earnings from Iraq received by a man who helped organise a humanitarian visit by Mr Reynolds to Baghdad in 1998.
Allegedly official Iraqi documents which have now become public indicate that Mr Reid Al Taher, an Iraqi businessman based in England, received oil concessions from the Saddam Hussein regime that he used for profit. Mr Al Taher acted for the Irish exploration company, Bula Resources, in Iraq, prior to and during the period when Mr Reynolds was chairman of the company. Mr Al Taher was a director of a Bula subsidiary in Iraq that never traded. Mr Reynolds opposed his being appointed to the main board of the then public company.
The same allegedly official documents indicate a now dissolved company based in Ardee, Co Louth, also received oil concessions from the Saddam regime. The company was called Afro Eastern Ireland Ltd. The directors, Mr Zuhair George and Ms Grace George, who share an address in the West Midlands, England, could not be contacted last night.
Both Mr Al Taher and Afro Eastern Ireland are listed under Ireland on the documents. It is not clear why Mr Al Taher appears under that heading.
During the period Iraq was subjected to UN sanctions, the Baghdad regime was allowed sell oil so as to buy food and medicines. Those allocated rights to buy oil could sell those rights on at a profit to oil companies. Mr Al Taher, according to the documents, was given the rights to 11 million barrels. Afro Eastern was given the rights to two million barrels.
Mr Al Taher has been reported by the Guardian as saying the amount assigned to him on the list is "exaggerated". He said he got the rights to three million barrels, which he sold on to major oil companies while gaining a commission of 10 US cents per barrel. His dealings with the Iraqi regime straddled the 1998 visit to Iraq by Mr Reynolds and British MP Mr Tam Dalyell, he said.
Mr Al Taher is understood to have been paid significant amounts of money by Bula for his work in Iraq on behalf of the company, which has since imploded. He organised the 1998 trip while running an organisation in the UK called Friends Across Borders, which campaigned against sanctions.
The publication of the list has proved highly embarrassing for those politicians and political parties from around the world who are included on it.
Mr Reynolds said he visited Iraq in 1989 for "humanitarian" rather than political or economic reasons.
"I spoke out against how the sanctions were affecting children. There were hundreds of them dying every month at the time." He said he never knew anything about any oil concessions received by Mr Al Taher. He said he travelled to Iraq at his own expense. Mr Reynolds said Mr Al Taher was active in Bula when he became chairman but was not engaged by it by the time he parted with the company.
