Don't sound too good...

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Russia demands seized tanker's immediate release February 3, 2000 Web posted at: 6:21 a.m. EST (1121 GMT)

MOSCOW (CNN) -- Russia on Thursday demanded the immediate release of a tanker seized in the Persian Gulf by the U.S. Navy on suspicion of violating the U.N.-imposed oil embargo on Iraq.

"The Russian side resolutely insists the tanker is immediately released," Interfax news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Seredin as saying. Russia had "expressed its puzzlement" to the United States and the United Arab Emirates over the incident, Seredin said.

Sailors from the cruiser USS Monterey boarded the Russian ship Volgonef on Wednesday without resistance from its captain or crew, a senior U.S. official told CNN.

The deputy minister, echoing earlier remarks by Transport Minister Sergei Frank, said the tanker was carrying Iranian fuel oil.

"The vessel never entered Iraqi territorial waters or Iraqi ports," he said.

The oil embargo, which allows limited oil sales by Iraq, is part of economic sanctions imposed by the U.N. on Baghdad after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The Volgonef and another Russian ship had been monitored by the United States for several weeks on suspicion they were carrying Iraqi oil from Shatt al Arab, Iraq, to the port of al Fujayrah in the United Arab Emirates.

The second ship remains in Iranian territorial waters, preventing the United States from boarding, Defense sources said.

First boarding of Russian vessel

While the inspection of ships in the Persian Gulf for suspected smuggling is not unusual, it is the first time a Russian ship has been involved.

The administration official said the incident demonstrates that the United States "will vigorously enforce" the U.N. oil embargo. The United States and the United Nations will continue to put a "high priority on (alleged) Iraqi smuggling" even when it involves a country such as Russia, the official said.

Senior military officials said Iran may also be implicated, for allegedly allowing the Volgonef to directly offload smuggled oil to other ships.

There has been an increased level of suspected smuggling in recent months due to rising oil prices, sources said.

In December alone, approximately 130 ships have been involved in oil smuggling, a record number since the inception of the embargo, U.S. officials said.

Limited Iraqi oil exports allowed

To cut the human cost of the sanctions, the United Nations developed the oil-for-food program, which allows Iraq to sell $5.26 billion worth of oil over six months to buy food, medicine and other basic supplies.

Baghdad has dismissed a U.N. Security Council resolution issued on December 17 to ease sanctions if Iraq allows U.N. weapons inspectors to resume work in the country.

The weapons inspections have been suspended since last December, when the U.N. Special Commission pulled inspectors out of the country just days before the United States and Britain launched massive airstrikes against Iraq.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), February 03, 2000

Answers

Roland, where is the link??? Please Please quote your source for verification (Not that I think you made it up or anything like that its just well...) Thanks

-- Jack Out of The BOx (jackout @ofthe.box), February 03, 2000.

http://dailynews.netscape.com/news/International/02_03_2000.roitz0650- story-bcinternationalrussiairaq.html

What's wrong Jack? Cat got your search engine?

-- Postman (ringstwice@lw.ays), February 03, 2000.

Uh oh. This seems tailor-made ingredients to Wag-The-Dog Part whattheheckever.

I can just hear Dan Blather: "House Rep. FollowTheLeaderOverTheCliff angrily rebuked homeowners in the NorthEast by asking how they can possibly consider themselves patriotic when they're complaining about being cold while our boys are enforcing the U.N. embargo."

Neither the timing nor the ship involved was any kind of accident.

Staying tuned...

-- Redeye in Ohio (cannot@work.com), February 03, 2000.

Just came up with the novelty item of the millenium. I'll take a wad of plastics and shape it to look like a bear and cover it with fuzzy fabric and call it POKEYBEAR. Wadda they doin'!!!!

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), February 03, 2000.

Yo, Jack. CNN. Right after the word "Moscow". Homepage www.cnn.com. Or try AP. Or Reuters. You get the idea.

R.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), February 03, 2000.

Here is a link:

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

MSNBC Link

Russia demands return of tanker Moscow says ship carries legal Iranian fuel oil

The Russian ship hugged the coast as it traveled southeast to Al Fujayrah. MSNBC NEWS SERVICES DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 3  Russian officials on Thursday denied that a Russian tanker detained by the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf was carrying Iraqi oil in violation of a U.N. trade embargo, and demanded that the vessel be released. AN INTERNATIONAL PATROL enforcing U.N. sanctions against Iraq stopped and boarded the Russian tanker on Wednesday night, suspicious that it was smuggling Iraqi oil.

U.S. Cmdr. Jeff Gradeck, spokesman for the multinational interception force, said the merchant vessel Volga-Neft-147 was being inspected in international waters near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Oil samples would be taken to determine whether the ship was carrying Iraqi oil, the Pentagon said.

The ship was tracked beginning with its departure from Iraqi waters until its interception because it was believed to be carrying petroleum products of Iraqi origin, Gradeck told Reuters from Bahrain, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based.

The U.S. Navy-led interception force is charged with policing Persian Gulf waters for smuggling in and out of Iraq goods banned by U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraqs 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The sanctions allow Iraq to export only a limited amount of crude oil  $5.26 billion every six months  which Baghdad can sell to pay for humanitarian supplies. The United Nations also monitors imports.

The Russian side resolutely insists the tanker is immediately released, Russias Interfax new agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Sredin as saying.

Russian Transport Minister Sergei Frank said the tanker was carrying fuel oil from Iran to various ports in the Emirates when it was detained.

Judging from the ships documents, there can be no talk of Iraqi oil, he told the Interfax news agency.

He said there was no way the ships owner, Transpetro-Volga, could determine the origin of the oil loaded in Iran.

Russian officials said the incident could further strain U.S.-Russian ties.

A U.S. State Department spokeswoman said the United States had repeatedly protested to Russia about suspected smuggling in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.

Gradeck said the ship had failed to respond to routine queries before it was stopped, but he would not confirm whether the tanker had passed through Iranian waters.

The United States has in the past accused Iran of allowing ships to use its territorial waters to smuggle Iraqi oil products, charges Iran denies.

Russian-flagged vessels have been implicated in the illegal export of Iraqi oil in the past. It is not new, but it is unusual, Gradeck said, quoting a U.S. statement issued earlier.

A U.S. news report has said a second Russian ship suspected of illegally carrying Iraqi oil was waiting out of reach in Iranian waters. Gradeck did not comment on that report.

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), February 03, 2000.

Show down with Russia no news at 11, This is brinkmanship, Clinton is a MORON putting our men and women in the armed forces in such preil. Remember who Russia is the other BAD ASS Nuclear POWER in the world. They could vaporize us. Clinton is a big jerk risking WWIII. Russia is the only country to have tested a 60 megaton warhead that vaporized 100 sq miles just north of the artic circle in 1962. Do you think they unleared how to make those things. Demand peace policies the human race cant survive war. Clinton a couple of cards short of a full deck.

-- y2k aware mike (y2k aware mike @ conservation . com), February 03, 2000.

Huh? OUr Man Bill? The Gramscian communist who wintered out the Viet Nam war in Moscow? And you think he doesn't know how to play the game for his handlers? My guess is this will lead to little -- otherwise it WOULD be broadcast news. You can't have a Wag-the Tallywhacker story without the major media giving the blow-by-blow.

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-- Squirrel Hunter (nuts@upina.cellrelaytower), February 03, 2000.