A top-secret Iranian plan to cause a deliberate and massive oil-tanker spill at the entrance to the Persian Gulf has been leaked to Western intelligence agencies.
The plan, codenamed "Dirty Water" and first reported in the German news magazine Der Spiegel, was reportedly intended to "punish" the West for imposing sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme.
The idea, said to have been drawn up by the leader of Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, was to wreck or sabotage an oil tanker in the Straits of Hormuz – the narrow seaway between Iran and Oman which is used by more than a third of the world's oil tankers to enter the Persian Gulf.
An oil spill from such a large vessel would cause an environmental disaster in one of the busiest international waterways, and force at least the temporary and hugely costly closure of the Persian Gulf to shipping, according to details published by Der Spiegel.
Western intelligence sources were quoted as saying the proposal was meant to "punish" hostile governments for placing sanctions on the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the belief that Tehran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Israel has threatened to attack Iranian nuclear installations before any such device is created, while the West's sanctions have largely been seen as attempt to mollify the Israelis. Iran insists that its nuclear ambitions are peaceful.
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