Iraqi businessman granted asylum in UK ‘led billion-dollar oil smuggling plot to help fund Iran's terror state'
TERROR PLOT Iraqi businessman granted asylum in UK 'led billion-dollar oil smuggling plot to help fund Iran's terror state'
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
AN IRAQI businessman granted asylum in the UK has been accused of running a billion dollar oil smuggling plot to finance global terrorism and domestic tyranny by Iran.
The Trump administration claims Salim Ahmed Said, 47, has been running a network of firms passing off Iranian oil as a product of Iraq to avoid sanctions for at least five years.
Sign up for Scottish Sun
newsletter
Sign up
Trucks full of cash made from the scheme have allegedly been sent to Iran to finance the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iraqi Kurd Said became a British citizen after seeking refuge from the Saddam Hussein regime in the UK in the early 2000s.
He owns a £27 million hotel in Kensington, West London, and runs two British companies blacklisted by the US Treasury.
Said was placed under US sanctions on July 3 but UK authorities so far do not appear to have taken action against him.
The US government said that some of the money from the plot had benefited the IRGC's elite Quds Force, a designated terrorist organisation which leads Tehran's overseas operations.
The Quds Force is suspected of kidnapping and assassination plots in Britain, the US and Europe and supports terror groups including Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthi movement, and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.
US Treasury documents state: 'Salim Ahmed Said runs a network of companies that have been selling Iranian oil falsely declared as Iraqi oil since at least 2020.
'Said's companies use ship-to-ship transfers and other obfuscation techniques to hide their activities.
'Said's companies and vessels blend Iranian oil with Iraqi oil, which is then sold to Western buyers, via Iraq or the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as purely Iraqi oil using forged documentation to avoid sanctions.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
11 minutes ago
- Reuters
UK's Senior reports 10% rise in profit on civil aerospace and defence demand
Aug 4 (Reuters) - British engineering firm Senior (SNR.L), opens new tab reported a 10% rise in first-half adjusted operating profit on Monday, helped by its aerospace division on robust civil aerospace and defence demand. Rising air travel demand, driven by growing disposable income along with increased defence spending amid heightened geopolitical tensions, has benefited firms like Senior, a key supplier to Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab and Airbus ( opens new tab. The company reported an adjusted operating profit of 31.2 million pounds ($265,760.00) for the half-year ended June 30, compared with 28.3 million pounds a year ago. Senior reiterated its expectations for 2025 and said trading had been in line with expectation. ($1 = 0.7526 pounds)
Belfast Telegraph
40 minutes ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Minister welcomes new £19m deal that will see Mexico import Northern Irish pork
After eight years of negotiations between Mexican and UK authorities, 12 businesses across England and Northern Ireland have secured approval to export quality pork products to Mexico, with the UK securing new access specifically for Northern Irish exporters, ministers said on Sunday. The 12 businesses include Cranswick Country Foods PLC, based in Hull, Watton and Ballymena; Karro Food Group in Cookstown, and Interfrigo Ltd in Antrim. The businesses will now be able to export pork, offal and edible by-products, bringing British pig farmers a return on parts that are less popular in the UK but which Mexican consumers enjoy as part of classical buche meat dishes. Government figures estimate that Mexico's pork market has grown by 5.4% annually between 2019 and 2024, with industry figures expect the deal to bring in £19m over the first five years. Stormont Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir said: 'I am delighted that Mexico has granted approval for Northern Ireland to export pork to its markets. 'This is testament to the exceptional standards we have in place here in Northern Ireland to produce high quality meat at an international level and demonstrates our commitment to supporting our important agri-food industry. Working together with industry, government and key stakeholders was essential to reach this agreement.' Daniel Zeichner, minister for food security and rural affairs, said the deal is a 'tremendous win for our pork producers and builds on our recent success in resuming exports to China'. 'It demonstrates this government's unwavering commitment to securing better trade deals for British farmers and food producers and will boost their incomes as part of our plan for change,' he added. Exports minister Gareth Thomas added: 'British pork is the best in the world and this £20m export win will boost farming and rural communities across the nation. 'The removal of yet another trade barrier is testament to our Trade Strategy which focusses on quick deals that deliver faster benefits to UK businesses and shows how this government is boosting exports as part of our Plan for Change while upholding our world-leading food standards.' This successful outcome follows eight years of negotiations between Mexican and UK authorities led by Defra, including the Food Standards Agency, Stormont's Department of Agriculture, the Environment and Rural Affairs, and industry partnerships with valuable support from the Department for Business and Trade and the FCDO. The Government's trade strategy, published earlier this year, is aimed at boosting exports and protecting UK firms at a time of growing uncertainty for global businesses following Donald Trump's tariffs.
Telegraph
41 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Sewage crisis putting people off sea swimming
The sewage crisis is putting people off swimming in the sea, according to a poll. Almost half of adults say that they would never swim off the British shoreline, up six percentage points in two years. Labour has promised to halve the amount of raw sewage being pumped into rivers, lakes and seas by the end of the decade. But the poll of more than 2,000 people by the Liberal Democrats found that even halving the amount of waste off the coastline would only tempt a fifth of bathers back into swimming in the sea. There are around 14,500 storm overflow drains in England, which are used to pump raw sewage into rivers and the sea when there is heavy rain. Last year, there was a record 3.6 million hours of sewage spills into waterways, suffocating wildlife and making bathing waters unsafe for humans. The Government has also promised a crackdown on polluting water companies, scrapping the failing regulator Ofwat and replacing it with a more effective body. The bosses of polluting water companies also face having their bonuses blocked by the Government if their firms fall short of stricter new standards of pollution. But the Liberal Democrats have urged that the Government go further in its actions against water companies, demanding higher fines and the threat of criminal repercussions for persistent polluters. Tim Farron, the party's environment spokesman, said: 'This coastline crisis threatens to wreck British summers with people afraid of swimming in the sea due to rampant sewage dumping. 'These polluting firms have been let off the hook at every turn and it is our local environments and people's summer holidays that are suffering the consequences. 'The Government has tried talking a good game on sewage but their targets have failed to wash with the public who expect more than a job half done. 'The only way to reverse the Conservatives' neglect of our waterways is for Labour to give the new regulator the powers it needs to hold these water companies accountable for the damage they are doing.' The Liberal Democrats made sweeping gains to the detriment of the Conservatives in rural areas in last year's general election, having made the state of Britain's waterways a central plank of their campaign. Chichester, a city which had been Tory for a century, was captured by the Lib Dems after the party capitalised on anger over contamination of the River Lavant. Victoria Atkins, the shadow environment secretary, has backed plans to strengthen environmental protections on Britain's coasts. A Conservative Environment Network (CEN) report put forward proposals to strengthen marine protections by introducing more highly protected marine areas (HPMAs). Designating a site as an HPMA would ban all fishing and seabed mining in the area, which the report argued should be done in places 'guided by ecological evidence'. It also argued that instead of building more seawalls and groynes to tackle coastal flooding and erosion, nature-based solutions such as dunes and saltmarsh should be prioritised as primary defences instead.
