TOKYO, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- U.S. officials have formally told Japan no U.S. warships used in the Iraq war have been refueled by Japanese defensive military vessels, a report says.
A Japanese peace organization had claimed last month that records of the U.S. oil ship Pecos and other documents suggested that in 2003 the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force ship Tokiwa gave illegal logistical support for the Iraq war by indirectly supplying oil to the U.S. carrier Kitty Hawk, the Kyodo news service reported Saturday.
Special Japanese legislation, which faces expiration Nov. 1, allows the nation's self-defense vessels to only provide fuel for foreign vessels taking part in the U.S.-led mission in and around Afghanistan, known as Operation Enduring Freedom, under Japan's Constitution.
But a U.S. administration official said fuel for U.S. war vessels ''doesn't get diverted'' to U.S. operations in Iraq.
''We're getting the fuel in the OEF mission area and we're using it for OEF missions,'' he told Kyodo on condition of anonymity. ''It hasn't been diverted. It's all been used for OEF.''
Japan's largest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, is opposed to extending the law, saying the Afghanistan operations have no United Nations mandate.
