It’s been years since anyone really took seriously the idea of the oil weapon. Indeed, a good many people still seem to think it is an altogether obsolete bit of equipment. Think again.
Iran presents the most recent use of the oil weapon. Last week, the Iranians warned Britain and the US that the international community could face a new oil crisis if the United Nations Security Council were to impose sanctions on Tehran over its alleged attempt to acquire a nuclear weapons-making capability.
Ali Larijani, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator and head of the supreme national security council, shed crocodile tears and went on to pledge that his country would really be reluctant to cut its oil exports: “We do not want to use the oil weapon. It is them who would impose it upon us.”
Oil as leverage...
But Larijani nonetheless had no hesitation, despite his pledge, to insist that if the West did decide on sanctions, “We will react in a way that would be painful for them.... Do not force us to do something that will make people shiver in the cold.”
The Iranians are not alone in trying to use oil as leverage for their political ambitions. Consider Israel, too, which unleashed an environmental disaster when it bombed the Jiyeh coastal power plant, about 20 km south of Beirut.
The attack caused an oil spill that experts say is causing environmental damage with long-term effects. In fact, an environmental group last week warned that the oil spill stretching along the Lebanese coast is exposing local populations to increased cancer risks and other health hazards.
“The black tide on the Lebanese and Syrian coasts exposes people in the stricken areas to a risk of cancer,” from both direct exposure and food contamination, said Sergio Illuminato, director of INFO/RAC, an agency working with the UN Environment Program.
Illuminato said the attack on the plant caused heavy fuel oil to spill, adding that some of its compounds-such as benzene-are carcinogenic.
...Around the globe
Meanwhile, in Afghanistan last month suspected members of the Taliban torched two fuel tankers in the Band-e Sarda area on the Ghazni-Paktika Highway in late July.
The oil tankers were supplying fuel to a Turkish road construction company, according to Gen. Shah Wali Haqparast, commander of the third highway brigade in Ghazni. He said the timely arrival of the local police saved a third tanker from being burned.
Hilal, a caller claiming to be a local Taliban commander, said they were responsible for the attack. He said the vehicles were set ablaze because they were supplying fuel to the coalition forces.
Obsolete? The news these days shows that the oil weapon is being honed from one end of the earth to the other. And in the coming days of scarcity, we’ll probably see much more of it, too.