Kuwait In Trouble With Iraqi Authorities

Iraqi authorities told Kuwait on Friday it was "playing with fire" in seizing five vessels loaded with goods shipped from Iraq in violation of United Nations sanctions.

An Iraqi Culture and Information Ministry spokesman, said the seizure was a foolish act that again confirmed Kuwait was acting as an Israeli-U.S. police force in the Gulf.

"The Kuwaiti regime's repeated hindering of commercial navigation in the Gulf reveals that the Kuwaiti rulers...have appointed themselves Zionist-American police," the spokesman said.

"They don't want to understand up to now that what they are doing is a very dangerous act and that they should stop playing with fire," he added. An international force led by U.S. warships patrols the narrow Gulf waterway to enforce strict U.N. sanctions imposed against Iraq since its 1990 invasion of fellow Kuwait. So far this year, Kuwait has seized some 25 vessels trying to smuggle oil and other products out of Iraq.