Global Policy Forum

By David Storey

Washington - An international patrol enforcing U.N. sanctions against Iraq has decided to divert a Russian oil tanker to a holding area after finding evidence it engaged in smuggling, the United States said on Thursday. "We believe this vessel is carrying contraband," Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley told a news conference.

U.S. officials said there had been growing concern about Russian-flagged ships taking part in a buildup of smuggling of Iraqi oil to take advantage of rising oil prices, although there was no evidence of Russian government involvement. Quigley said U.S. military personnel, who took part in an armed boarding of the Volgoneft-147 on Wednesday afternoon, had sufficient evidence to detain the tanker pending further analysis of its cargo.

Russia demanded that the tanker, stopped by one of two U.S. warships serving in the multinational interception force (MIF), be released and said the ship was carrying legal Iranian fuel oil.

Quigley said after an initial inspection of the cargo of gasoil and other checks it was decided the ship, which was boarded just outside the Gulf, should be diverted to a holding point out of the shipping lanes. The final decision on whether it would be confiscated, along with its cargo, depended on further analysis to determine the origin of the gasoil, he said. "That decision could be made as early as later today," he said.

If that decision were made, ports in the region would be contacted to find one willing to take the ship, which would be confiscated.

He said there had been "excellent cooperation from the ship's master and crew." He added: "There have been no incidents of violence whatsoever" since the boarding party landed by helicopter.

The U.S. Navy-led multinational interception force is charged with policing Gulf waters for smuggling in and out of Iraq goods banned by United Nations sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. U.N. sanctions against Iraq prohibit oil exports except for a limited amount of crude oil, which is allowed to be sold to fund humanitarian supplies.

Quigley said that in 1999 the interception force made queries to over 2,400 ships, boarded 700 of them and 19 separate times diverted those ships for further investigation.

State Department spokesman James Foley said the State Department had spoken to the Russian ambassador in Washington several times in January about MIF suspicions that certain Russian companies were smuggling Iraqi fuel oil. He added, "The Russians have told us that this ship is privately owned and that an investigation on the Russian side is under way. The Russians have not provided us, thus far, with the results of their own investigation.

"The Russian government has also requested consular access to its Russian-nationality crew on the tanker and consular access has been granted. We're working now to make the necessary arrangements" He said illicit oil exports via the Persian Gulf averaged about 50,000 barrels a day for much of 1998 but that oil smuggling increased sharply in the fall of 1999 and has now reached about 100,000 barrels a day.

It was the first boarding of a Russian vessel by MIF since Aug. 31, 1998, and the first diversion of a Russian vessel since Jan. 5, 1998, Foley said.

"This Russian-flagged ship is privately owned and we again have not drawn the conclusion that the Russian government in any way is supportive of efforts to smuggle or to overcome or subvert the sanctions regime," he added.