Eric Watkins, Middle East Correspondent
Even as the US Navy vowed to use "deadly force" to prevent any further disruption of Iraqi oil exports, interior ministers of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have agreed to step up their cooperation on issues of security throughout the Persian Gulf region.
A joint US Navy-US Coast Guard team is reviewing its tactics for protecting navigation in the Persian Gulf following the Apr. 24 suicide attack near an Iraqi oil terminal that killed three service members (OGJ Online, Apr. 26, 2004).
"There's less tolerance, more inclination to use force in the security zone," USCG Comdt. Thomas Collins told a news briefing May 5 in Washington, DC. Collins said the team is considering the possibility of more suicide attacks and will determine whether tactics need to be refined to meet the threat.
Collins's remarks follow an earlier announcement by the US Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain that US naval ships and personnel would use deadly force if necessary to stop suspect ships from approaching Iraq's oil export terminals in the Persian Gulf at Basra and Khor al-Amaya.
"Mariners are reminded that coalition warships are prepared to take defensive measures, including if necessary the use of deadly force, against any contact whose identity or intentions are unknown and which poses a threat," said a statement issued May 1 by the fleet's Maritime Liaison Office (Marlo).
Zones established
As a further precaution, Marlo said that "warning zones" have been established extending 3,000 m around each of the two ports, as well as smaller "exclusion zones" extending 2,000 m from the outer edges of terminal structures in all directions. "Only tankers and support vessels authorized by terminal operators or coalition maritime security forces are allowed to enter the exclusion zones," Marlo said.
The Navy also announced that some 50 US Marines armed with heavy weapons have been deployed at the Basra and Khor al-Amaya terminals.
"We have more people, better equipped, with types of weapons with more range, more firepower, and more caliber," said Vice-Adm. David Nichols, commander of US Naval Forces Central Command.
The Marines will be coordinating security with the US Air Force and Navy, Nichols said.
Three US sailors were killed and the electric generators at the Basra terminal were slightly damaged in the Apr. 24 attacks, which temporarily halted loadings and cost Iraq an estimated $40 million in lost revenues after the country suspended exports.
Security agreement
Meanwhile, GCC interior ministers May 3 signed a security agreement that called for the exchange of information in the field of intelligence and vowed to step up the battle against growing threats of terrorism in the region.
Abdulrahman Attiya, GCC secretary general, described the accord as the "most important" since the GCC's 1981 founding, and he said it "reflects the determination to combat terror in all forms and shapes...to safeguard GCC security and stability."
Attiya said "lawlessness in Iraq" is adversely affecting the security of the GCC states, which requires taking security measures and boosting the monitoring of borders to prevent infiltrators.
Kuwait's daily newspaper Al-Anbaa quoted Persian Gulf security sources as saying the agreement would be conducive to run more air, land, and sea patrols on the borders, drawing on a database of suspected terrorists.
The signing of the GCC security pact follows an attack on May 1 in which militants shot dead five Western engineers and one Saudi security official at Yanbu, a petroleum hub on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast (OGJ Online, May 4, 2004).
While the Yanbu attack did not damage facilities or disrupt production, it contributed to uneasiness among oil traders that the shootings and the earlier attempts to bomb the Iraqi oil terminals might be precursors to a more determined attack on vital oil facilities in the region.
Even before the Yanbu attack, Arab officials warned that the oil-rich GCC states were facing a terror plot to destabilize them. The GCC groups the gas and oil-rich states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
"We believe there is a plot to destabilize the region," said Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed al-Sabah on Apr. 28. He said his government was in "continuous contact" with the US over the instability in Iraq, which "affects the region in general and Kuwait in particular."
Talks postponed
That instability also has affected oil talks between Kuwait and Iraq. On May 4, Kuwaiti Energy Undersec. Issa Al-Oun said talks concerning common oil fields along the border between the two countries had been postponed until Iraq's security and political situations are stabilized.
Al-Oun also said that proposed discussions on exporting Kuwaiti crude to Iraq via Kuwaiti ports had been postponed due to "circumstances" concerning the Iraqi side. Earlier this year, Al-Oun said Kuwait and Iraq had formed a technical team to study the possibility of establishing a pipeline with a capacity to export as much as 1 million b/d of Iraqi crude through Kuwaiti terminals (OGJ Online, Mar. 3, 2004).
But Al-Oun did confirm that Kuwait will begin importing Iraqi natural gas in the first phase of a multistaged import plan, beginning with an initial 50 MMcfd of gas, which would eventually increase to 200 MMcfd within 18 months.
Al-Oun said the final copy of the contract will be signed within a month, and that the project will cost $8 million, with Kuwait investing $6 million and Iraq $2 million for the construction of the necessary facilities and pipelines. The first phase of construction is due to begin in October 2005.
