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Thursday, 3 February 2000 16:59 (ET)

Tanker may be confiscated, sold - By PAMELA HESS

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (UPI) - A privately owned Russian tanker believed to be smuggling oil for Iraq will be diverted and the ship and cargo likely sold for cash despite Russian government demands for its release, according to a Pentagon spokesman.

"We don't do this willy nilly," said Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley. "We have reasons to challenge this vessel."

In fact, the State Department says Iraqi oil smuggling is increasing in volume as oil prices increase. In 1998, smugglers transported 50 thousand barrels per day. That number has increased to 100 thousand barrels per day, worth $25 million a month to Saddam Hussein, according to United Nations and U.S. intelligence estimates.

In 1999 there were 2,422 queries, 700 boardings and 19 diversions.

The vessel, boarded yesterday afternoon by crew from the U.S.S. Monterey, has been under suspicion for more than a month, according to the State Department. The cruiser and the frigate U.S.S. Taylor are participating in the international Maritime Interception Force, which has been enforcing the economic embargo on Iraq for nine years. The United Kingdom and Kuwait are also participating.

U.S. officials repeatedly warned Moscow the vessel was believed to be carrying illicit cargo on behalf of cash-strapped Saddam Hussein's regime, according to the State Department.

"We have been in regular contact with Russian officials, both here and in Moscow, for almost one month on this issue. We've spoken with the Russian ambassador here in Washington several times in January prior to the intercept of the vessel, and the focus of these discussions were suspicions that the Maritime Interception Force had regarding the activities of vessels belonging to certain Russian firms," said Deputy State Department spokesman James Foley Thursday.

Russia is conducting its own investigation, the results of which have not been provided to the United States, Foley said. The government has been granted access to the Russian crew members on the tanker.

The incident threatens to sour U.S.-Russian relations only a day after the departure from Moscow of U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. A Russian Foreign Ministry statement issued Thursday said, "The Russian side resolutely insists the tanker be immediately released."

Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Sredin said Moscow was "puzzled" by the U.S. move to intercept and board the Russian oil tanker, insisting that "the (Russian) vessel never entered Iraqi territorial waters or Iraqi ports."

The vessel was peacefully intercepted and border by the Monterey Wednesday afternoon in the Gulf of Oman, between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, the Pentagon's Quigley said.

"In this case we felt strongly enough that a decision to divert is appropriate," he said. "We believe this vessel is carrying contraband."

The ship, a Russian Volgoneft-147 tanker, will be diverted to an anchorage in international waters and then escorted to an as yet undetermined port where the host country will handle the crew, ship and its cargo according to its own laws, Quigley said.

The unusual interception took place as the Russian tanker left Iranian territorial waters.

The last time a Russian ship was stopped was 1998, Quigley said. Since 1990, the UN maritime force has queried (mostly by radio) 28,000 vessels; boarded more than 12,000 and diverted more than 700. In 1999, the maritime force queried 2,422 vessels, boarded 700 and diverted 19, he said.

U.S. officials took pains to emphasize this action was not meant to send a message to Russia but rather to smugglers in the Arabian Gulf.

"We would like to send a message to all smugglers: we are always watching," Quigley said. "If you're a smuggler, you risk losing it all."

Russian Transport Minister Sergei Frank claimed the tanker was loaded with 4,200 tons of Iranian oil and was due to make calls at several ports in the United Arab Emirates, on the other side of the Persian Gulf.

"According to the ship's documents, there can be no mention of Iraqi oil," Frank said. According to the Russian minister, the ship's owner, Transpetro-Volga, had no information on the origin of the oil loaded in Iran.

The U.S. Navy has taken samples in an effort to determine if the oil had originated in Iraq.

The Foreign Ministry's Sredin said Russia had expressed its surprise over the U.S. action through the Russian embassies in Washington and Abu Dhabi, the Emirates capital. Sredin said the "American side (has been) urged not to take any hasty, forceful measures before we conduct our own investigation."

It was not immediately clear how the situation would develop, but Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev expressed concern that a Russian merchant vessel had been intercepted by the U.S. Navy.

Iraq has been under strict U.N. trade sanctions since its invasion of Kuwait. In 1996, the U.N. Security Council allowed Iraq to sell a limited amount of oil in exchange for food and humanitarian goods.

A U.N. spokesman said Thursday the interception regime in the Persian Gulf, while authorized by the Security Council, was not overseen by any United Nations entity. So, Fred Eckhard said, there is "No comment on our side."

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), February 04, 2000

Answers

Piracy on the high Seas?We are gaining more and more "Friends"every Day.North-East,here comes Your Heating Oil,can You afford it???

-- Olive Oyl (Oil@Oil.Oil), February 05, 2000.