By Salam Abdulshammari
Azzaman, December 1, 2014
The Islamic State controls Iraq’s bread basket and has been emptying its silos and moving food and grains to Syria, according to Agriculture Minister Falah al-Zaidan.
“The organization of Daeesh (the local appellation for the Islamic State) has transported about one million tons of wheat and barley from the Province of Nineveh to Syria,” said Zaidan.
The Province of Nineveh, of which the city of Mosul is the capital, has the largest silos in Iraq and its plains are called the country’s ‘bread basket’.
Islamic State militants control Mosul and almost all of Nineveh Province. They also occupy large areas of the Province of Diyala, one of Iraq’s most prolific in agricultural produce as well as major dams with sluices allowing regulation of the flow of water.
Zaidan said grains and other food products “are being smuggled to the Syrian cities of Raqqa and Deir ez Zor.”
He added that the militant group finds itself safer in Syrian than Iraq and “for this reason it started transporting wheat and barley from Mosul to these two cities.”
The minister said Iraq was on its way to become self-sufficient in grains and other produce but the invasion by Islamic State militants of large areas changed conditions.
“Daeesh is in control of important agricultural areas and has already confiscated a great deal of agricultural produce,” Zaidan said. “Daeesh has prevented us from reaching our goal of self-sufficiency in agricultural and guaranteeing food security for citizens.”
The parliamentary agriculture commission has urged the government to retake dams with sluices currently under the control of Islamic State insurgents.
The commission’s head Furat al-Tamimi said vital sluices in Diyala Province were under Islamic State control and the militants were using water as a weapon.
“Agriculture in Diyala Province has been dealt a severe blow,” Tamimi said. “I urge the government to free the sluices which are still under Daeesh’s control.”
