Iran says stopped Iraq vessels in Gulf dispute

[ECH1969]

The Iranian envoy in Baghdad said yesterday Iraqi vessels had encroached into Iranian waters and Tehran was investigating Iraqi accusations that Iran had kidnapped a coastguard patrol after a clash in the incident.

"The Iranian coastguard stopped an Iraqi vessel and two ships escorting it. Iran is investigating the matter and some answers should emerge in a few hours," Hasan Kazemi-Qomi said.

He declined to say whether Iran was holding nine Iraqi coastguards.

Mohammed al-Waili, the regional governor of Basra, said on Tuesday that the Iraqi coastguards had boarded an Iranian-skippered ship suspected of smuggling oil in Iraqi waters when they were overpowered by an Iranian patrol.

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Gulf%2C+Middle+East+%26+Africa&month=January2006&file=World_News2006011914317.xml

[bpilgrim]

1. a Gulf of Tonkin Incident?

pfft... who says we needs a UNSC resolution?!?

more...
http://GlobalFreePress.com

peace

[Solly Mack]

4. was thinking the same thing

[ECH1969]

2. Iran is going to end up with all of the oil in southern Iraq

the second a civil war breaks out, Iran will send its army into southern Iraq and take the oil fields and there will be nothing the US can do about it.

[HuffleClaw]

3. provoking an 'incident' perhaps?

but will the public give two pence about something this lame?

[Poll_Blind]

5. Could this be their Straight of Hormuz gambit?

Most of the oil moves through the Striaght of Hormuz. If Iran blocks that oil then we have to act. If they decide to inflame the situation with that move it puts the United States in a very rough position- our troops are spread about as thin as you can imagine. To illustrate the point, here is a strategy work-up I Google'd with similar conditions.

PB