Today is the Era of Thoughts, Dialogue, and Cultural Exchanges
Note: Important updates at the end of this post.
"The time of the bomb has passed. It's behind us. Today is the era of thoughts, dialogue, and cultural exchanges."
This is a quote from Iranian president Ahmadinejad during an interview, by journalist Mike Wallace of CBS, on August 8th, 2006. Today, August 22nd, the IranPressNews Agency (via Bloomberg) reports that an Iranian naval vessel has attacked and boarded a Romanian oil rig operating in the Persian Gulf. (H/T: Jawa Report.)
I suppose this is Ahmadinejad's version of dialogue and cultural exchange:
Iran's Navy Attacks and Boards Romanian Rig in Gulf
Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) — Iran attacked and seized control of a Romanian oil rig working in its Persian Gulf waters this morning one week after the Iranian government accused the European drilling company of “hijacking'' another rig.
An Iranian naval vessel fired on the rig owned by Romania's Grup Servicii Petroliere (GSP) in the Salman field and took control of its radio room at about 7:00 a.m. local time, Lulu Tabanesku, Grup's representative in the United Arab Emirates said in a phone interview from Dubai today.
"The Iranians fired at the rig's crane with machine guns,'' Tabanesku said. “They are in control now and we can't contact the rig." The Romanian company has 26 workers on the platform, he said.
Iran, which holds the world's second-largest oil and gas reserves, is due to respond today to a European Union-led offer of incentives aimed at persuading it to halt uranium enrichment activities that are crucial to its nuclear program.
Neither the press office of Iran's oil ministry nor the one of Iran's revolutionary guards could be reached for comment when called. Today is a national holiday in Iran.
Crude oil for September was at $72.56 a barrel, up 11 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 12:06 p.m. in London. The contract expires today. The more-active October contract was up 7 cents at $73.37 a barrel.
Straits of Hormuz
Iran urged the United Arab Emirates last week to help it return another oil rig owned and operated by the Romanian company in the same waters close to the Straits of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world's daily oil supply moves on tankers.
Grup said it recovered its rig last week because of a contractual dispute with its Iranian client, Oriental Oil Kish.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suspended Oriental Oil's activities in 2005 on alleged corruption activity and ties to Halliburton Co. of the U.S. The U.A.E.-registered drilling company had signed a preliminary contract with Halliburton after winning an estimated $310 million contract to develop phases 9 and 10 of Iran's offshore South Pars gas reservoir.
Mircea Geoana, the head of the Social Democratic Party, the main opposition party in Romania, called on the government to “undertake all diplomatic measures necessary'' to persuade the Iranians to release the rig.
He also called on President Traian Basescu in a news conference broadcast on Realitatea television to invite all political party heads to the presidential palace to "discuss what Romania's reaction will be to this provocation."
Confederate Yankee points out that this story isn't being widely reported. CY also notes a connection between Romainia's GSP and Haliburton which could provide the "blame America first" croud fertile ground for a Bush / Cheney conspiracy in which a ground war campaign against Iran is initiated.
Interestingly, the Islamic Rebuplic News Agency (IRNA) reports that Iran's ambassador to Romania, Aliakbar Farazi, recently met with vice speaker of the Romanian Senate, Theodor Melshkanoon, on Monday to discuss issues of "mutual concern":
Iran's Ambassador to Romania, Aliakbar Farazi, met with vice speaker of the Romanian Senate Theodor Melshkanoon Monday and stressed development of bilateral ties.
The two sides expressed consent over the expansion of mutual cooperation in different sectors.
They also followed up the holding of the 16th joint economic commission and the joint meeting of traders of the two countries which will be held to develop commercial ties as well as the upcoming trip of the Romanian Senate speaker and head of its foreign policy commission to Tehran.
So far, nothing in the way of headline news on any of the major Romanian news websites.
UPDATE (August 22nd): A Statement from Gabriel Comanescu, president of the Administration Board of S.C. Grup Servicii Petroliere S.A. The company that owns and operates the Romanian oil rig:
Terrorist Iranian Act against the ORIZONT Romanian Offshore Drilling Rig Act
The Romanian personnel aboard the rig is in great danger
After having blocked illegally the Orizont rig, under Romanian flag, belonging to the Romanian company Grup Servicii Petroliere, in the Iranian waters. The authorities are trying, flagrant breach of all the international rules, to occupy the rig. Starting from yesterday 21 August, Iranian military helicopters and ships abuse from their force position, trying to intimidate the Romanian crew aboard the rig. The situation created by the Iranian authorities was further complicated this morning. At 9:15, Romanian time, an Iranian military cutter boat opened fire against the Orizont rig, in the stern crane. At 9:15, the rig was occupies by Iranian military troops, equipped with armament. Aboard the rig there is Romanian crew made up of 26 persons. Since 10:00 we have no contact with the crew. We do not know if anyone is hurt.
We are hereby requesting urgently the support to establish the contact with the crew aboard.
GABRIEL COMANESCU,
President of the Administration Board of S.C. Grup Servicii Petroliere S.A.
Taken from GSP's corporate website. If you don't want to wait the entire six minutes for their website to load, the PDF version of the statement (33 Kb) is available.
UPDATE (August 23rd): Romania’s GSP vows to recover oil rig from Iran
UPDATE (August 24th): Iranian Military Returns Gulf Rig to GSP Amid Contract Dispute
Since this story barley made frontpage news today, I'm adding to the Beltway Traffic Jam and hope word gets around.