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Just shows the iron fist of New World Order imperialism:THURSDAY DECEMBER 20 2001
Iran hits back after US 'attack' on tanker
FROM MICHAEL THEODOULOU IN NICOSIA
IRAN protested to the United States yesterday after accusing American forces of intercepting an oil tanker in the Gulf which Tehran at first said was Iranian and had been mistaken by the Americans for an Iraqi vessel smuggling oil.
Two people on board were injured, Iran�s state television reported. However, the US Navy, confirming the incident later, said that only one seaman had been hurt.Iran�s Foreign Ministry summoned the Swiss Ambassador, whose country represents US interests in Iran, to deliver a strong protest and demand an explanation.
The Pentagon said last night that its forces had boarded a Belize-flagged oil tanker suspected of violating sanctions against Iraq. A spokesman for the US Defence Department, Lieutenant-Colonel Dave Lapan, said the tanker had been allowed to proceed after it was found not to be breaking sanctions. �It was a Belize-flagged tanker, so I don�t know what the Iranian part of this is,� Colonel Lapan said.
Last night a spokesman for Iran�s Foreign Ministry, Hamid Reza Asefi, said that the tanker was Saudi-owned and had been carrying raw material for unleaded fuel to the southwestern Iranian port of Abadan when it was intercepted by US boats and seized.
Earlier Mehdi Mohtashami, head of the American Affairs Department at the Iranian Foreign Ministry, denounced the move as �contrary to international laws� and called for �measures to avoid a repetition of such acts�, the Iranian news agency, Irna, said. It was a �vile transgression� and Iran reserved the right to �follow up this violation through legal channels�, he added.
The first reports on Iranian state television said that two American frigates had intercepted the ship and two of the tanker�s crew had been injured by US forces on speedboats. Iranian radio reported that the seamen had been wounded when the Americans �opened fire�, although it did not explain why. Irna said that the tanker had been �intercepted� by several American vessels, but, unlike the country�s broadcast media, made no mention of injuries.
The Swiss Ambassador was said to have expressed his �deep regrets�. He told an Iranian Foreign Ministry official that the American boats had mistaken the tanker for an Iraqi vessel smuggling oil, Iranian television said.
Iranian analysts doubted that the incident would seriously damage the tortuous thaw in relations that has been taking place between Tehran and Washington, without diplomatic ties for 22 years. Last month Iran won praise from the American head of the United States-led multinational interception force that patrols the Gulf to enforce United Nations sanctions on Iraq.
Vice-Admiral Charles Moore said that, as a result of Iranian action to curtail the use of the Shatt al-Arab waterway between Iran and Iraq, there had been a fall of almost 50 per cent of the oil Iraq could smuggle through the Gulf.
President Saddam Hussein�s regime makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year from the unauthorised sale of an estimated 350,000 barrels a day. Only 30,000 barrels a day are now smuggled by sea because it is less profitable for Iraq and because of the risks involved, oil experts said. The rest goes as unauthorised cross-border trade to Syria, Jordan and Turkey.
The US Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, often intercepts tankers accused of smuggling Iraqi oil. An Iraqi vessel sank last month after being boarded by US Navy troops.
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