generalspeaking

Saturday, July 20, 2019

One Free, Two To Go ...

"Communication has been re-established with the vessel and Master confirmed that the armed guards have left and the vessel is free to continue the voyage."
"All crew are safe and well."
Mesdar's manager, Norbulk Shipping UK

"In a bid to identify and fight organized smuggling ... the patrol boats of the Guards' naval forces abruptly stopped one of the foreign vessels which carried 1 million litres of smuggled fuel."
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps

The Stena Impero

"[The ship was making an entry from the exit point of the Strait of Hormuz in the south], disregarding the established procedures that require all entries be made through the northern pass." "[The ship has been escorted to Iranian coastal waters for further legal procedures and investigations'."
Fars news agency

Britain is advising that all maritime activity in the Strait of Hormuz should be suspended for the time being, citing the piracy being engaged in by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Earlier in the week a foreign ship, accused of "smuggling fuel" was intercepted south of Larak Island, Iran, in the Strait of Hormuz, its crew of a dozen arrested. Now they've been freed. "Our analysis right now is that nothing has actually happened" reported TankerTrackers on Twitter.

According to the best guess of experts closely monitoring events the amount of onboard cargo of the ship was insignificant, that it would appear Tehran towed the vessel for the purpose of drama, a show of strength, in the wake of Britain having impounded an Iranian supertanker off Gibraltar earlier in the month. And subsequently warning Britain of consequences to come. Those consequences appear to have arrived.

The Guards' seizure of the British-tagged tanker Stena Impero is yet another risky chess move by the Republic in its undeclared war with the West. In obvious angry desperation at its inability to export Iranian oil as previously with the added U.S. sanctions that followed President Trump's withdrawal of American support for the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement, last year, Tehran is hitting out at one of the European countries that has been at the forefront of attempting to mediate and find a way to circumvent U.S. sanctions.

It appears that a second British ship has now also been detained. This is a high stakes game Tehran is playing. All its previous provocations have mostly targeted ships belonging to its Middle East Sunni rivals. The issue of tangling with the U.S. in the matter of shooting down a U.S. drone, and the U.S. more latterly destroying an Iranian drone buzzing a U.S. naval carrier has increased tensions. Europe had attempted to remove itself from entanglement in disputes between Washington and Tehran.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has called for an emergency meeting to discuss the urgency of escalating confrontations. The meeting, explained British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt is to determine “what we can do to swiftly secure the release of the two vessels". Later he said further, "We’re not looking at military options; we’re looking at a diplomatic way to resolve the situation. But we are very clear that it must be resolved."