Hostage incident

Oil embargo

The 1973 oil embargo happened in October following the United States' and Western Europe's support of Israel against Arab nations in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Saudi Arabia and Iran being chief among those angered. Iran stopped providing oil to the United States and Western Europe. King Feisal of Saudi Arabia imposed an oil embargo against the West, saying he was drawing ‘the sword of jihad’. Oil pricing for the United States went from 3 dollars a barrel to 12 dollars a barrel, spurring gas rationing. U.S. stations put a limit both on the amount of gas that could be dispensed, closed on Sundays, and limited the days it could be purchased based on license plates. For example if the last digit on a car's license plate was even gas could only be purchased on even days. Prices continued to rise after the Embargo ended. The Oil Embargo of 1973 had a lasting effect on the United States. U.S. citizens began purchasing smaller cars that were more fuel efficient. The embargo also forced America to revaluate the cost and source of energy which previously receive little consideration.

One of the most lasting effects of the Oil Embargo was an economic recession throughout the world. Unemployment rose to the highest percentage on record while inflation did the same. Although the embargo only lasted one year, oil prices quadrupled and a new era of international relations was opened. Arab nations had discovered that their oil could be very effectively used as both a political and economic weapon against other nations.

hostage incident

On 21 December 1975 Ahmed Zaki Yamani and the other oil ministers of the members of OPEC were taken hostage by a six-person team led by terrorist Carlos the Jackal (which included Gabriele Kröcher-Tiedemann and Hans-Joachim Klein), in Vienna, Austria, where the ministers were attending a meeting at the OPEC headquarters. Carlos planned to take over the conference by force and kidnap all eleven oil ministers in attendance and hold them for ransom, with the exception of Ahmed Zaki Yamani and Iran's Jamshid Amuzegar, who were to be executed.

Sometime after the attack it was revealed by Carlos' accomplices that the operation was commanded by Wadi Haddad, a Palestinian terrorist and founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. It was also claimed that the idea and funding came from an Arab president, widely thought to be Muammar al-Gaddafi.

Bassam Abu Sharif and Klein claimed that Carlos had received a large sum of money in exchange for the safe release of the Arab hostages and had kept it for his personal use. There is still some uncertainty regarding the amount that changed hands but it is believed to be between US$20 million and US$50 million. The source of the money is also uncertain, but, according to Klein, it was from "an Arab president." Carlos later told his lawyers that the money was paid by the Saudis on behalf of the Iranians and was, "diverted en route and lost by the Revolution".

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