Navy To Keep Control Of Russian Tanker

The U.S. Navy decided Thursday to divert and retain control of a Russian tanker stopped in the Persian Gulf, pending a decision on whether to seize oil U.S. officials believe came from Iraq in violation of a U.N. embargo.

Russian officials said the oil came from Iran.

The Russian-flagged commercial ship is to be diverted to a yet-to-be-determined anchorage in international waters and then possibly turned over to a third country, said Pentagon spokesman Adm. Craig Quigley.

"This is not an insignificant action," Quigley said. He said U.S. Navy personnel assigned to an international inspection operation boarded the ship Wednesday by helicopter without resistance and have gathered "enough evidence to say we believe this vessel is carrying contraband."

The guided missile cruiser USS Monterey, operating as part of an international force monitoring Persian Gulf waters, stopped the Russian merchant vessel Volga-Neft-147 Wednesday off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, the Pentagon said.

"The suspected sanctions violator, which was tracked beginning with its departure from Iraqi water until its interception, is believed to be carrying petroleum products of Iraqi origin prohibited from export by U.N. sanctions," the Navy's 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, said in a statement.

The Navy said the vessel was boarded for inspection in accordance with "standard operating procedure as a result of its last port of call and failure to respond to routine inquiries regarding its intentions."

The captain of the tanker has been cooperating, and if the oil is found to have come from Iraq, the boarding party likely would request permission from an Emirates port to bring in the ship and dispose of the contraband oil, Defense Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said at the Pentagon.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said Russian officials have been kept informed of the process. "I don't know if they've formally protested," Lockhart said.

He said inspectors had boarded ships 700 times last year and diverted them to port for further investigation 19 times.

"Those who want to engage in smuggling certainly will use whatever ways or whatever methods are available to them," Lockhart said. "It's the U.N.'s responsibility to make sure we stop it."

In Moscow, Russian officials denied that the tanker was carrying Iraqi oil.

Russian Transport Minister Sergei Frank said the tanker was carrying fuel oil from Iran to various ports in the Emirates. "Judging from the ship's documents, there can be no talk of Iraqi oil," he told the Interfax news agency.

Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Sredin told Interfax that the tanker did not enter either Iraq's territorial waters or any Iraqi ports and must be released immediately.

"Of course, this situation does not suit us at all," he said. "We expressed our surprise over the incident hrough our embassies in Washington and Abu Dhabi."

The tanker was traveling away from Iraq, through the Straits of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world's oil passes.

"The cargo is still under inspection, but gasoil and information onboard indicate that the cargo came from Iraq," Cmdr. Jeff Gradeck of the 5th Fleet said in Bahrain. Gasoil is a type of crude used for diesel engines and sometimes for heating.

Gradeck said that with the increase in world oil prices last year, the smuggling of Iraqi crude had increased "quite a bit."

In September, some 191,000 metric tons of oil was smuggled from Iraq, he said. In January, the figure jumped to 367,000 metric tons. As a result, the fleet of Western warships that monitors Gulf waters for sanctions violations has also increased its activities, Gradeck said.

Stopping a Russian ship was "not new but it is unusual," said Jim Kout, another Pentagon spokesman.

David Leavy, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said U.S. officials have been communicating with the Russians through normal diplomatic channels, but they haven't received any kind of protest.

"The president made very clear we're going to vigorously enforce the sanctions," Leavy said. "It is a top priority to us to continue to deny smuggling opportunities to the Iraqi regime."

U.S. officials said in October that Navy ships had diverted at least five ships carrying cargo to Iraq after boarding parties had problems searching for contraband in the preceding month. The United States and Britain are the main enforcing parties.

A military spokesman said at the time that inspectors query "every ship that goes into the Gulf" and board a vessel "if there is any question about the cargo."

Until the U.N. Security Council lifted the ceiling on Iraqi oil exports on Dec. 17, Iraq had been unable to sell its oil on the open market because of sanctions imposed after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. In 1996, the council launched the oil-for-food program to allow Iraq to export limited amounts of oil to buy humanitarian goods for its people.

Written by David Ho