GENEVA: If Iran'soil exports are cut to zero, international waterways will not have the samesecurity as before, its president said yesterday, cautioning Washington againstraising pressure on Tehran in an angry confrontation between the longtime foes.The comment by President Hassan Rouhani coincided with a remark by IranianForeign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that Tehran might act"unpredictably" in response to "unpredictable" US policiesunder President Donald Trump.
"Worldpowers know that in the case that oil is completely sanctioned and Iran's oilexports are brought down to zero, international waterways can't have the samesecurity as before," Rouhani said while meeting Iranian Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Khamenei's official website. "Sounilateral pressure against Iran can't be to their advantage and won'tguarantee their security in the region and the world."
Tensions betweenTehran and Washington have risen since the Trump administration last year quitan international deal to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions and began to ratchet upsanctions. Tehran has denounced the new penalties as "economicwarfare". In a speech at the Stockholm International Peace ResearchInstitute (SIPRI), Zarif appeared to echo Rouhani's tone. "Mutualunpredictability will lead to chaos. President Trump cannot expect to beunpredictable and expect others to be predictable. Unpredictability will leadto mutual unpredictability and unpredictability is chaotic," Zarif said.
Global commoditytrading has been rocked in recent months after a series of attacks oninternational merchant vessels, which the United States has blamed on Iran, andan Iranian seizure of a British oil tanker. Tehran has denied accusations thatit was behind attacks on six tankers in May and June. Washington, which has byfar the strongest Western naval contingent in the Gulf, has been calling forits allies to join it in an operation to guard shipping in the Strait ofHormuz, a vital gateway for the world's oil industry.
So far, Britain,Bahrain and Australia have joined the US-led security mission to protectmerchant vessels travelling through key Middle East waterways. "Thisdestabilizing behavior is a threat to Australia's interests in theregion," Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told a news conferencein Canberra yesterday. "Our contribution will be limited in scope and itwill be time-bound." Morrison said Australia would send a P-8A Poseidonsurveillance plane to the Middle East for one month before the end of 2019,while an Australian frigate would be deployed for six months from January.Australia is a staunch ally of the United States, which in recent months hasurged partners to do more for global security.
ReiteratingIran's chilly response to the security mission, Iranian Rear Admiral AliFadavi, a deputy commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, said no one cansecure the Gulf other than Iran and countries of the region, according to thesemi-official Fars news agency. "Securing the Persian Gulf is theresponsibility of Iran and the countries of the region," Fadavi said."Other than us, no one can secure the Persian Gulf."
Erik Hanell,owner of the British-flagged tanker detained by Iran while entering the Gulf,met Zarif in Stockholm on Aug 20 to make the case for the ship and its crew tobe freed. The Stena Impero was diverted to an Iranian port on July 19, twoweeks after Britain detained an Iranian tanker off the territory of Gibraltar.That ship was released this week. "A constructive dialogue was had and weshared information around the case," Hanell, chief executive of StenaBulk, said in a statement yesterday. "It was important for us to emphasizethe importance of the release of the 23 crew...Also for the release of theSwedish-owned vessel Stena Impero."
Meanwhile, theIranian tanker that has sparked a diplomatic row pitting Tehran againstWashington and London is too big to dock in Greece, the country's juniorforeign minister said yesterday. "This is a very large crude carrier, itis over 130,000 tons... It cannot access any Greek dock," junior foreignminister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis told Ant1 TV. Varvitsiotis said the Greekgovernment had "faced pressure" from US authorities over the vesselbut insisted that Athens "has sent a clear message that we would not wishto facilitate the transport of this oil to Syria under any circumstances."
The British RoyalMarines seized the ship on July 4 off British territory Gibraltar on suspicionit was transporting oil to Syria in breach of European Union sanctions,triggering a sharp deterioration in relations between Tehran and London. Iranhas repeatedly denied any violations. The incident has come at a difficult timefor Greece's new conservative government which was elected just over a monthago.
Greek PrimeMinister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' office yesterday said the PM is expected to visitWashington "soon", and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expectedto visit Greece in the autumn, Varvitsiotis said. Greece must also treadcarefully as its influential shipping sector does major business in the ArabianGulf. Varvitsiotis said Athens was not in contact with Tehran over the tanker,which was originally called Grace 1 but has been renamed the Adrian Darya, andhad received no request from Iran.
The websiteMarine Traffic, which earlier this week gave the ship's reported destination asthe Greek port of Kalamata, had placed the supertanker carrying 2.1 millionbarrels of oil some 100 km northwest of the Algerian port of Oran. The maritimetracker says the tanker is expected to arrive in Kalamata on Monday, butVarvitsiotis suggested it may not dock in Greek waters at all. "It hasnamed Kalamata as its port of destination but this doesn't mean anything,"adding: "It could drop anchor somewhere" else. "It could unloadthe oil at any non-EU refinery. It could head south" to North Africa, headded.
Separately, anIranian oil tanker has broken down in the Red Sea near Saudi Arabia but itscrew are safe and carrying out repairs, the oil ministry's website saidyesterday. The HELM suffered a "technical fault" about 120 km northof the Saudi port of Yanbu on Tuesday, the ministry's website said, citing theNational Iranian Tanker Company. "The crew of the tanker are busy fixingthe defect and the vessel is in a stable situation from a safetystandpoint," the NITC's technical director Akbar Jabalameli was quoted assaying. The crew of the tanker was safe and "in full readiness to solvethe problem", he added.
TankerTrackers.com,which monitors ship movements, said the HELM was carrying 1.3 million barrelsof crude oil and heading towards the Suez Canal from the Iranian island ofKharg. The vessel appears on the US Treasury's website in a list of entitiessubject to American sanctions. It is the second such Iranian breakdown inrecent months after the tanker Happiness 1 was forced to seek repairs in theSaudi port of Jeddah port that reportedly cost the Islamic republic $10million. - Agencies