Editing OPEC (section)

===1975: Hostage siege===

{{Main|OPEC siege}}
On 21 December 1975, Saudi Arabia's [[Ahmed Zaki Yamani]], Iran's [[Jamshid Amuzegar]], and the other OPEC oil ministers were taken hostage at their semi-annual conference in [[Vienna, Austria]]. The attack, which killed three non-ministers, was orchestrated by a six-person team led by Venezuelan terrorist "[[Carlos the Jackal]]", and which included [[Gabriele Kröcher-Tiedemann]] and [[Hans-Joachim Klein]]. The self-named "Arm of the Arab Revolution" group declared its goal to be the liberation of [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]. Carlos planned to take over the conference by force and hold for ransom all eleven attending oil ministers, except for Yamani and Amuzegar who were to be executed.<ref name=jackal/>

Carlos arranged bus and plane travel for his team and 42 of the original 63 hostages, with stops in [[Algiers]] and [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]], planning to fly eventually to [[Baghdad]], where Yamani and Amuzegar were to be killed. All 30 non-Arab hostages were released in Algiers, excluding Amuzegar. Additional hostages were released at another stop in Tripoli before returning to Algiers. With only 10 hostages remaining, Carlos held a phone conversation with Algerian president [[Houari Boumédienne|Houari Boumédiène]], who informed Carlos that the oil ministers' deaths would result in an attack on the plane. Boumédienne must also have offered Carlos asylum at this time and possibly financial compensation for failing to complete his assignment. Carlos expressed his regret at not being able to murder Yamani and Amuzegar, then he and his comrades left the plane. All the hostages and terrorists walked away from the situation, two days after it began.<ref name=jackal/>

Sometime after the attack, Carlos's accomplices revealed that the operation was commanded by [[Wadie Haddad]], a founder of the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]]. They also claimed that the idea and funding came from an Arab president, widely thought to be [[Muammar Gaddafi]] of Libya, itself an OPEC member. Fellow militants [[Bassam Abu Sharif]] and Klein claimed that Carlos received and kept a ransom between 20&nbsp;million and US$50&nbsp;million from "an Arab president". Carlos claimed that Saudi Arabia paid ransom on behalf of Iran, but that the money was "diverted en route and lost by the Revolution".<ref name=jackal>{{cite web |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/terrorists/jackal/12.html |title=Carlos the Jackal: Trail of Terror |publisher=truTV |first=Patrick |last=Bellamy |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107125703/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/terrorists/jackal/12.html |archive-date=7 January 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3t5jtM2faD8C&pg=PA102 |title=Jackal: The Complete Story of the Legendary Terrorist, Carlos the Jackal |first=John |last=Follain |publisher=Arcade Publishing |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-55970-466-3 |page=102 |access-date=13 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503194550/https://books.google.com/books?id=3t5jtM2faD8C&pg=PA102 |archive-date=3 May 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> He was finally captured in 1994 and is serving life sentences for at least 16 other murders.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.sky.com/story/carlos-the-jackal-jailed-over-1974-paris-grenade-attack-10816476 |title='Carlos the Jackal' jailed over 1974 Paris grenade attack |first=Gary |last=Anderson |publisher=Sky News |date=28 March 2017 |access-date=22 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170328141244/http://news.sky.com/story/carlos-the-jackal-jailed-over-1974-paris-grenade-attack-10816476 |archive-date=28 March 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>