Morocco ‘forced to refuel boat’

Press, 19 August 1981, Page 8

Morocco ‘forced to refuel boat’

• NZPA-Reuter Rabat, ... Morocco ; A hijacked Iranian missile ; patrol boat arrived at the ( Moroccan port of Casablanca ; -and sailed off again after the I hijackers forced harbour ; authorities to provide . fuel, I food, and water, Moroccan sources said yesterday. The report was the first ( hews of. the missile boat ; Tabarziri since it disappeared ! after hijackers, apparently Iranians opposing the present Teheran Government,, seized' at off ’southern Spain last Thursday. The .sources, quoted by the Moroccan' news, agency

i M.A.P., did not say when .the i incident .occurred but indi- ■ cated it was probably on ; Saturday. ' ' - i . Iranian monarchists-: in Paris said their supporters : hijacked the Tabarzin after it left Cadiz harbour in' i southern Spain last Thursday : with two other patrol. boats on their way from Cherbourg i in France to Iran. Iran has accused Morocco I of complicity in the hijack.i According to the Moroccan I agency) the Tabarzin was I loaded with destructive

weapons and munitions including 1250 shells of 40mm and 270 shells of 76mm when it arrived in Casablanca harbour.

■“lts crew demanded with threats that the patrol boat be supplied with water, food and fuel. Fearing a mutiny on- board and an explosion which could have certainly caused serious damage if not the destruction of the port, the 'Moroccan authorities consented to supply the patrol boat which was immediately >; escorted afterwards to the limit of Moroccan • territorial waters.", the agency said. \ . “. , . The patrol, boat is at present far outside Moroccan territorial waters and has been; for nearly - 48 hours,” M.AiP. quoted the sources as saying.- indicating that the vessel put in at Casablanca last Saturday at the latest.

The last ■ report on the Tabarzin . was on Saturday when the Iranian opposition group Azadegan (The Free) said in Paris the vessel was in international waters off Gibraltar and “manoeuvring for the next military action". The group said about 40

hijackers were on the boat and that the captured crewmen were safe and well.

Azadegan said it has the support of several Iranian opposition groups and was sympathetic tp the late Shah of Iran. Tabarzin and the. two other gunboats which left Cherbourg at the same time were part of an order of 12 vessels for the late Shah. ’ . Their handover had been delayed until President Francois Mitterrand lifted an embargo imposed by his predecessor, Valery Giscard d’Estaing. In Iran, Teheran’ Radio has reported that firing squads have executed 23 more people-in a continuing crackdown on leftist-activists opposed to the Islamic Government.

And the Iranian Parliament has approved all but one of 22 Cabinet members nominated last week by the Prime Minister (Mr Mohammed Javad Bahonar). the nominee who did not make it through the vote of confidence was Hossein Tadjagardun, the proposed Transport Minister. i