Iran has recently stopped allowing tankers carrying smuggled Iraqi oil to dodge international monitoring ships in the Persian Gulf by staying inside Iran's territorial waters, the DPA quoted the Pentagon as saying on Thursday. The loss of the Iranian safe haven has led smugglers to change tactics, loading the oil from the large tankers onto smaller vessels in hopes of evading U.S. Navy ships trying to enforce United Nations sanctions against Iraq, said General Richard Myers, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. According to DPA, closing its territorial waters to Iraqi smugglers could be an overture to the United States from Iran, which was branded by U.S. President George W. Bush as part of his "axis of evil" allegedly for supporting terrorists and trying to attain weapons of mass destruction.
Iran's been watching the War on Terror, too, and they've been noting what the nay-sayers have been missing: it's been pretty successful. Now they're stuck with Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah and they're probably arguing over what to do with them. If they ever do return to civilization, dumping them will be necessary. |