CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A Russian tanker in the Persian Gulf has been boarded by the U.S. Navy, the reason? A search for suspected contraband crude oil from Iraq. We get the latest on this confrontation from CNN's military affairs correspondent Jamie McIntyre. Good morning, Jamie.</s>JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well the U.S. Navy and British ships enforcing the oil embargo against Iraq have stopped 700 ships over the past year and boarded them, looking for oil. This one is a little different because it is the first time a Russian tanker has been stopped in international waters. Now Russia says this tanker was simply moving heating oil from Iran to UAE, but the U.S. Navy watched the ship go into Iraqi waters and it believes it's holding illegal Iraqi crude oil. The U.S. ship sailors boarded the ship, they've taken samples of the oil, and they say they can determine from that whether or not it came from Iraq. If it did, they will seize the oil; if not, they will let the ship go. But at this point, they are just holding it in international waters just south of Iran -- Carol.</s>LIN: Jamie, is this likely to further strain U.S.-Russia relations?</s>MCINTYRE: Well, as you noted, U.S.-Russia relations are already strained about the NATO war in Kosovo, the Russian war in Chechnya, and of course, U.S. plans for a national missile defense. So this isn't going to help. But in the big scheme of things, U.S. analysts believe that it's not going to really make things any much worse, it simply doesn't help, and but in the long run there are bigger issues between the United States and Russia that need to be resolved.</s>LIN: Good point. Thank you very much, Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon.
U.S. Boards Russian Tanker in Persian Gulf