Posted on 07/05/2019 1:08:52 PM PDT by Hadean
LONDON/DUBAI, July 5 (Reuters) - An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander threatened on Friday to seize a British ship in retaliation for the capture of an Iranian supertanker by Royal Marines in Gibraltar.
"If Britain does not release the Iranian oil tanker, it is the authorities' duty to seize a British oil tanker," Mohsen Rezai said on Twitter.
The Gibraltar government said the crew on board the supertanker Grace 1 were being interviewed as witnesses, not criminal suspects, in an effort to establish the nature of the cargo and its ultimate destination.
British Royal Marines boarded the ship off the coast of the British territory on Thursday and seized it over accusations it was breaking sanctions by taking oil to Syria.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said the crude oil cargo was from Iran. The ship's paperwork had said the oil was from neighboring Iraq, but tracking data reviewed by Reuters suggested it had loaded at an Iranian port.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Call Iran’s bluff.
Iran is about to lose.
“Call Iran’s bluff.”
They probably aren’t bluffing as they have nothing to lose. At least, given their past experience with former presidents not named Reagan, they have nothing to lose. If they don’t stop the screws from tightening then the regime will fall as the conditions there are getting tougher for average citizens who were already chaffing under sanctions. Things are so bad that they stopped giving money to Hezbollah. Hezbollah is now circulating cardboard containers for donations. (Seriously. I guess kids dress up in suicide suits and go door to door. Who could say no?)
The market is a pretty good indicator as to whether there will be a conflict and the Opec basket is up about $1 per barrel to $63. But it’s well below last year’s high in the mid seventies. The market is not anticipating a war. There may be some tit for tat stuff, but no major conflicts yet.
Cn we have RoEs in place? Time to shoot Iranian boats pulling mines and evidence out of tanker sides
Sanctions are a powerful smokeless weapon. Sanctions against Japan was a prime reason that Japan made the catastrophic decision to attack the United States. Iran is hurting badly. their oil sales have been badly crimped, there is ruinous inflation and food shortages. Their frustration is mounting daily. Strongly suspect that shooting can be initiated by some junior, jihadist Revolutionary Guard officer acting alone. Imagine what it is like for these lunatics to watch Saudi and other Arab tankers escorted by American ships going through the Straits of Hormuz while the Iranians can’t sell their oil.
Iran, still writing checks it’s ass can’t cash.
The British have Trident at least.
Now if they have the will to use if pushed hard enough is another question.
I’m not for willy nilly nuclear weapons use though.
Let everyone still signed on to the Kenyans treaty deal with the Persian.
Otherwise, we can splash their entire navy in a week. We dont really need the strait, but our limp dink friends sure enjoy an American carrier group in the zone.
Air and ground operations necessarily gather attention.
Lose half your navy, in deep water, in a week... No one saw a thing. Wouldn’t be the first time, probably not the last. Some still at state and Senate have a special thing for iran.
And Trump pretends to care about proportional response. Last place on earth you want to be is targeted by Trump, after you killed a puppy. Probably proportionately fespond with an entire battery of tomahawks.
Our military capabilities so outpace the rest of the planet,it is near obscene. Fortunate, those who have limited experience with the terrain and logistics are duct taped to a folding chair...
It happens.
Oh, wait..................
So what if Iran loaded an Iranian tanker with oil and sells it? I get us saying it can’t come here, and our allies saying the same, but blockading their ports? That’s an act of war. Along with seizing their ship.
The globalists want a war and 120 dollar crude to sink Trump.
Imposing sanctions on a country’s trade with third-party trading partners is an act of war. I haven’t seen anything that would explain the justification for Great Britain to seize a ship that didn’t belong to them, was not conducting business with them, and was operating outside their waters.
Terrorism, or asymmetrical warfare is also an act of war. Play dangerous games, win unpleasant prizes.
The problem is that Iran will just keep upping the ante until we lose a skyscraper. No amount of appeasement will be enough.
I understand the seizure happened in the waters off Gibraltar claimed by Britain - although this is the subject of a long-running dispute with Spain, which also claims them.
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