On August 22, a few hours before Iran delivered its response to the UN about its nuclear program, an Iranian warship fired on a Romanian oil rig and seized it. The New York Sun reports:
An Iranian naval vessel fired on the rig, named Orizont, owned by Grup Servicii Petroliere in Iran's offshore Salman field and took control of its radio room at about 7 a.m. local time, Grup's representative in the United Arab Emirates, Lulu Tabanesku, said in a phone interview from Dubai yesterday. "The Iranians fired at the rig's crane with machine guns," Mr. Tabanesku said. "They are in control now, and we can't contact the rig." The Romanian company has 26 workers on the platform, he said.
Although the Romanians are working to defuse the situation and have reportedly agreed that the incident was "of a commercial nature," there is much more to the seizure than that. Iran has engaged in a number of provocative moves lately, and this incident must be seen as part of a broader picture.
