Iran joins call for oil embargo against Israel and allies

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ Iran on Friday became the second OPEC country to call for an oil embargo against Israel's allies, while thousands of Arabs across the Middle East protested Israel's offensive

Friday, April 5th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ Iran on Friday became the second OPEC country to call for an oil embargo against Israel's allies, while thousands of Arabs across the Middle East protested Israel's offensive into Palestinian territories.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Muslim oil-producing states should halt supplies to countries supporting Israel.

``I suggest, only for one month, as a symbolic gesture, that Arab and Islamic countries switch off oil to all countries who have close relations with Israel,'' Khamenei said in a Friday prayer sermon at Tehran University.

Khamenei did not elaborate on which countries should be targeted or whether Iran would take such action unilaterally.

During a visit to Moscow, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi suggested his government would support Khamenei's suggestions.

``If other Islamic countries join in this call, it will be a very strong instrument against America and Israel,'' Kharrazi said.

Three days ago, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri proposed that Arab countries use oil to pressure the United States into forcing Israel to end its military offensive in the West Bank.

Iraq also belongs to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps about a third of the world's crude. The last Middle Eastern oil embargo against the West was in 1973 because of an Arab-Israeli war.

OPEC secretary-general Ali Rodriguez told Dow Jones Newswires an oil embargo would counter the organization's goal of promoting a secure oil supply and stable prices.

Rodriguez also said through a spokesman that OPEC has not received any member proposal for an oil embargo against nations sympathetic to Israel.

World markets initially were alarmed by Iraq's earlier boycott call, as crude futures surged to six-month highs Tuesday, pushing prices at U.S. pumps higher.

Those world prices stabilized Thursday, however.

Oil analysts said an embargo would be ineffective. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait would have to participate for it to be successful and both have signaled they would not join such a boycott.

Also, non-OPEC producers such as Russia, Mexico and Norway likely would pump more oil to cover any supply shortage, analysts said.

OPEC and other major oil exporters pledged in November 2000 not to use oil as a political weapon, although Iraq did not attend that meeting.

Also Friday, Palestinian supporters in Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan and Lebanon protested Israel's ongoing offensive in Palestinian territories.

The Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan protests turned violent.

In Manama, Bahrain, about 7,000 demonstrators massed outside the U.S. Embassy, with some hurling rocks into the compound and burning an embassy satellite dish and a sentry box.

Bahraini police fired tear gas at the crowd _ which burned an American flag and chanted ``Death to America! Death to Israel!'' _ and erected a barricade of steel fencing and barbed wire.

At Egypt's top Islamic institute, the Cairo-based Al-Azhar Mosque, some 2,000 protesters called for Arab military intervention, chanting: ``One, two, where is the Arab army?''

The sermon speaker, university president Ahmed Omar Hashem, called on Arabs to support the Palestinians by all means, including arms.

Scores of riot police blocked the mosque's exit, making sure demonstrators did not take to the streets.

But later, people who left the mosque reassembled to revive the demonstration. Police officers charged with batons, kicking some protesters and chasing others down side streets.

One demonstrator was bleeding from the mouth.

Protesters also rallied in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria.

In Jordan, riot police used batons against about 4,000 demonstrators converging on the Israeli embassy in Amman. Police stopped protesters from reaching the embassy, but some in the crowd vandalized cars and telephone booths.

Some 2,000 protesters also attacked about 50 riot police with shoes and stones following prayers at Amman's al-Husseini mosque. Police reinforcements used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

In the southern port of Aqaba, King Abdullah II attended prayers for the ``souls of the martyrs'' _ the Palestinians killed during 18 months of fighting with Israel.

Abdullah then addressed a telethon for wounded Palestinians that he initiated.

``I tell them (Palestinians) that their steadfastness and their heroism is a source of pride to the whole Arab nation,'' Abdullah said.