Iranian Leader Khamenei Calls for One-Month Oil Embargo Against Pro-Israeli Western Nations

Debka Files ^ | April 5, 2002 | Debka

[jraven]

As DEBKA-Net-Weekly Predicted: Muslim Oil Embargo Threat Is Brandished - Influences Bush Turnaround

5 April: Friday, April 5, Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on Arab states to enforce a one-month oil embargo against Western countries, to pressure them to stop supporting Israel. A similar call issued from Baghdad on Monday, April 1.

This following passage comes from the DEBKA-Net-Weekly, Issue 55, which was published earlier:

As oil prices soared to a six-month high, Iran and Iraq began muttering this week about aMuslim-Arab oil embargo for bending America to their will.(DEBKA-Net-Weekly predicted this development in its January 25, 2002 Issue, No. 46.)

Now, they are not thinking terms of the 1973-4 all-Arab oil embargo - but rather of combining in an Iranian-Iraqi-Saudi bloc to stand against the US-Russian partnership. This embargo would only target the United States, Russia and Israel, but not affect Japan, China and West Europe.

DEBKAfile’s Gulf sources add that Iran’s leaders, backed by Iraq - with Saudi Arabia quietly active in the wings - are hard-selling their oil embargo plan. As terrorism spreads, this hardline Muslim axis expects to apply the Arab oil embargo threat as an irresistible weapon for forcing the Bush administration to turn its back on Israel and swing its support behind Yasser Arafat.

Our oil experts point out, however, that times have changed since the 1973-4 Arab embargo. The United States is no longer solely dependent on Arab oil producers. Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia, the largest oil-producing bloc in the world, will not risk losing their primary source of revenue in the long term. However their threat alone is enough to throw world oil prices – expected to shoot up in the next day or two – into disarray, as well as shocking financial markets. All three producers will make sure to keep their markets in Japan and Europe - even if they have to bypass their own embargo

[ASA Vet]

Will they ever learn .. this will NEVER happen

How difficult would it be to drill new wells though a few feet of glass?

[ozdragon]

Let the Saudis drink their oil. Lets build a few more nuke plants, drill ANWAR, increase imports from Russa and spend $5.0 billion a year for the next 10 years and develope real alternate energy. We can squeeze our Mexican friends to increase their oil production, too.

[dennisw]

True. The price could go into immediate shock, but it should level out once the supply chain is remanaged. The price might be a little higher, but it certainly won't throw the world into chaos.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't most oil sold today on the spot market.? As opposed to 1973 where it was mostly on fixed contracts. So much more on the spot market makes it easier to send the oil right where it's needed. Even if that nation is supposed to be boycotted.

[Corporate Law]

Let 'em. We need to finally get over our dependence on their oil, develop alternative resources, and oil fields in ANWR and the oil sands of Alberta, Canada. Then we can tell the desert rats to go to hell and watch them devolve into a primitive state without our oil dollars flowing to them. Israel would then have no leash to restrain it from defending itself. Will this all happen? Who knows. But the development of alternative sources and resources should be a national priority.

[BOBTHENAILER]

Good points and eaily done. Just south of the Permian Basin (TX & NM) there are vast untouched reserves on the Mexican side. Alternate sources would have to be competitive IMHO, or else we would pay too much. Nukes are by far the cheapest if we can overcome the China Syndrome.

[untenured]

From what I understand, the nature of the oil market today means both that the emirs and mullahs can't prevent their oil from getting here unless they don't export at all, and that we almost can't avoid buying their oil unless we refuse to import any oil at all by ship.

[Stavka2]

I surely hope they do, the Rodina will be glad to take up their market share...on a perminent basis.

[NetValue]

"How difficult would it be to drill new wells though a few feet of glass?"

I'm with you. After 9-11 I said we should "nuke" several capitals - Riyadh, Tehran, Damaskas, Tripoli, Baghdad - one time and early, to make the world terror-free and safe for Democracy once again.

Before it's finished, I believe we will have to do so. Defeat is something Arabs and Muslims really understand.

[Dog Gone]

You understand correctly. That's why this story is either completely false, or Khamenei doesn't have the slightest clue how oil markets work.

[TheDon]

Doh! I've been Debka'd!

[Lent]

How about we respond with a 1 YEAR embargo on food and medicine to all OPEC countries?

Yes, but you would have to endure the moral weight of having an additional 10 trillion children dying daily just like the billions already dead from the embargoes to Iraq.

[Howlin]

I pick post number 2 AND post number 3, Monty.

[Howlin]

Perhaps Tom Daschle will have to park his SUV; works for me.

[amom]

hummmm

[Eva]

This is Debka. The rest of the news services said that the other OPEC countries had pledged no embargo.

Interestingly, some of the large environmental orgs have filed a lawsuit in an attempt to limit the amount of crude which can be processed at the largest, most up to date oil refinery on the West coast.

[BlueLancer]

"Yes, but you would have to endure the moral weight of having an additional 10 trillion children dying daily just like the billions already dead from the embargoes to Iraq."

I'm assuming that's sarcasm on your part.

200 years from now, I want their children's children's children's children to cower and cringe in fear whenever they hear the sounds of jet engines overhead because their legends tell of fire from the sky.

I want them to hide in dark caves and holes in the earth, shivering with terror whenever they hear the roar of diesel engines because the tales of their ancestors talk about metal monsters crawling over the earth, spitting death and destruction.

I want their mothers to be able to admonish them with "If you don't behave, the Pale Destroyers will come for you", and that will be enough to reduce them to quivering obesience.

I want the annihilation to be so complete that their mythology will tell them of the day of judgment when the stern gods from across the sea .. the powerful 'Mericans .. destroyed their forefathers' wickedness.

[Lent]

I'm assuming that's sarcasm on your part.

(/sarcasm)

[RCW2001]

Debka not the only service running with this story today:

Iran Leader Urges 'Symbolic' Oil Ban on West
Last Updated: April 05, 2002 07:10 AM ET -->
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TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Arab states on Friday to launch a "symbolic" one-month oil embargo against Western countries to pressure them to stop supporting Israel. "Arab governments can use oil as a weapon. They can cut off the flow of oil to all the countries which have good ties with Israel," Khamenei said in a sermon during the Muslim Friday prayers in Tehran. "I am not saying to cut it forever, just for one month in a symbolic way. If they (Western countries) do not receive oil, their factories will come to a halt. This will shake the world," he said. As the most powerful political figure in Iran, Khamenei has the final say on all state affairs. But he is rarely involved in detailed political and economic policy-making, which is handled by more moderate President Mohammad Khatami. Khamenei stopped short of calling for his country to initiate an oil embargo against the West, a prospect already rejected by Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi. "This is not a decision that one country alone can make for itself. It has to be a collective decision for it to be effective," Kharrazi, a close ally of President Khatami, said on Thursday, during a visit to Moscow. Leading Arab oil exporters Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have both rejected the idea of an embargo first raised by Iraq on Monday. Non-Arab Iran, the second largest crude oil producer, has tried to cultivate closer ties with fellow OPEC members in order to boost its position in the cartel and assure stronger prices. It is unlikely, analysts say, that Iran would take any action to alienate new friends such as Saudi Arabia and risk rivalries which could lead to turmoil in the oil market. Oil earnings account for 80 percent of Iran's hard currency income and any sharp price falls could further hurt the troubled Iranian economy. Perhaps with such fears in mind, Khamenei did not call for a fully-fledged oil war against the West as Iranian hard-liners have done in the past. "Arab governments should take a leading role on the embargo. They have everything to gain from this. It is in their own interest. It is one of the things they can do to make a difference," he said.

[SunStar]

Axis of evil...

[freeasinbeer]

Well, actually Iran did call today for an oil embargo...
Iranian News - (new window will open)

So Iran and Iraq are both calling for the oil embargo. And Debka points out that the Saudis are sitting in the background, qhich is hard to prove either way. So it looks like they got it mostly right.