Iran presses for oil embargo

Feelings are running high in Iran

By Jim Muir BBC Tehran correspondent

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has called on Islamic states to impose a comprehensive one-month oil boycott on Israel's main supporters.

Khatami has called for a complete multilateral boycott of Israel

The idea was first raised 10 days ago by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But Mr Khatami's proposal, in a letter to the chairman of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), makes it a practical and actively promoted proposition.

Despite the general lack of enthusiasm among most oil exporters for even a symbolic embargo, feelings are running high in many Arab and Islamic nations.

If US Secretary of State Colin Powell's Middle East peace mission should end in failure, and the crisis worsens, the Iranian proposal could prove hard to ignore.

Practical moves

When Ayatollah Khamenei first came out with the idea in a sermon at Friday prayers, it was in the realms of a general policy guideline.

But that has now been translated into practical terms by President Khatami. The move came in a letter to the emir of Qatar, who currently chairs the OIC, to which all major Islamic nations - many of them oil exporters - belong.

Khatami called the Israeli military action a "tragedy" against Palestinians

The Iranian president sent similar letters to the leaders of three key Arab oil states - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates - urging them to support the embargo idea.

The Saudis and Kuwaitis had earlier turned down a call from Iraq's Saddam Hussein for an Arab oil boycott against Israel's supporters.

Iraq last week went it alone in announcing a unilateral one-month halt to its oil exports.

The move drew little enthusiasm from other exporters, but increased the pressure on Iran not to be outflanked, especially as it followed Ayatollah Khamenei's call for just such a one-month embargo.

'Immediate steps'

President Khatami's direct appeal to the Saudis, Kuwaitis and the UAE will be harder to ignore. Since he took office in 1997, Iran's relations with the Arab side of the Gulf - especially with Riyadh - have improved remarkably, and they have generally coordinated their oil policies.

Mr Khatami urged the ICO to take immediate steps to bring about a complete multilateral boycott of Israel by the Islamic states, and simultaneously to impose a one-month embargo on oil supplies to Israel's main supporters, "in order to demonstrate the seriousness of Islamic opposition to the tragedy being enacted against the Palestinians".

He did not spell out who he regarded as Israel's "main backers". The only country he named in his letter was the United States, which, he said, had "regrettably demonstrated support and indulgence for Israel while it carried out crimes against humanity".

Washington, President Khatami declared, had "defended the criminals, while putting pressure on the most oppressed nation on earth".

Iranian officials have made it clear that they have no intention of going it alone with a boycott that would on its own be ineffective except in reducing Tehran's much-needed revenues.

They have stressed from the outset that to be significant, such a step would have to be joined by all the major Arab and Islamic oil-producing nations.