U.S. will not allow Iran to disrupt oil shipments - Navy commander
Washington, 2 July (IranVNC)—The United States will not allow Iran to close the Straight of Hormoz, a vital oil passage way in the Persian Gulf, the commander of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet said at a Gulf naval security conference in Abu Dhabi today.
By: IranVNC
Published: Wednesday, July 02, 2008
14:20GMT—10:20AM/EST
OIL – US – IRAN – HORMOZ
Washington, 2 July (IranVNC)—The United States will not allow Iran to close the Straight of Hormoz, a vital oil passage way in the Persian Gulf, the commander of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet said at a Gulf naval security conference in Abu Dhabi today.
“I believe ... Iran will not attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz and we will not allow them to close the Strait of Hormuz. I can't say it any more clearly than that," Vice-Admiral Kevin Cosgriff said, reports Reuters.
The Straight carries 40 percent of the world’s oil and gas supplies. Cosgriff and other naval commanders are in Abu Dhabi, discussing the region’s maritime security, trade routes and terrorism threats.
The chief of Iran’s Revolution Guard Corps [IRGC], Mohammad Ali Jafari, warned on 29 June that Tehran would restrict oil shipments if that country came under attack. His comments came after reports that the Israeli military performed an air exercise over the Mediterranean early in June, giving rise to fears that Israel may strike Iran’s nuclear installations if diplomatic efforts fail to convince Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.
But Cosgriff said Iran would likely face international pressure if it tried to close the vital shipping route, saying: "I think the international community would find its voice rapidly and insist that whoever was attempting to do this cease and desist.”
Iran’s Oil Minister, Gholam Hossein Nozari said today that his country was unlikely to withhold its crude from the oil market even if it comes under attack. But he said Iran would react “fiercely” in case of an attack.
“Iran, if there were any kind of activity of any sort, is not going to be quiet and would react fiercely," he told reporters on the sidelines of the 19th World Petroleum Conference in Madrid, reports AFP.
A weakening dollar and tensions between Iran and the West pushed crude oil above $143 recently, setting an all time high. Nozari today warned that an attack on Iran would further exacerbate market conditions.
"When just a statement (about a possible attack) makes this much volatility in the market, can you imagine that if any action happens ... what would be the result in the oil market?" AFP reports him as saying through a translator.
OPEC’s President Chakib Khelil said yesterday “it’s obvious” that OPEC would not be able to replace Iran’s exports if Tehran were to withhold its oil from entering international markets. “I don’t see who can replace that, including OPEC,” Khelil said at the Madrid conference, AFP reports.
Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, has an output of 2.8 million barrels per day. Industry experts say the country’s petroleum industry is in need of major upgrades to expand output capacity, a process that is made more difficult in the face of US and international economic sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program.
But Nozari dismissed suggestions that Iran’s oil industry is hampered by these sanctions. “We have increased our production in the past two years by 250,000 barrels a day and we have added to the production of our gas,” he told AP.
Sources: Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press
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