Posted on 08/15/2019 11:30:41 AM PDT by ETCM
Gibraltar has released an Iranian oil tanker detained last month despite a last-minute US bid to have the ship seized.
The US made an emergency appeal to Gibraltar to keep the Grace 1 in custody but authorities in the British territory announced on Thursday that they were releasing it.
The ship’s release after more than a month will raise hopes that Iran may now release the Stena Impero, a British-flagged tanker seized in retaliation by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
It was not immediately clear when the Grace 1 would actually set sail from Gibraltar or if the US would try to take further action to prevent its departure.
The ship was seized on July 4 on the grounds that it was violating EU sanctions on Syria by carrying 2.1 million barrels of crude oil to the Syrian coast, Gibraltarian authorities said.
Fabian Picardo, chief minister of Gibraltar, said he had received written assurances from Iran that the ship would not violate EU sanctions any further.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Gibraltar releases Iranian tanker despite last-minute US effort to seize it
Don’t we have missiles and powerful ordnance for this sorta thing?
Agree - I would think you would keep it in order to have something to trade. Why give up your leverage? Is Obama now in charge of Gibraltar?
How can the EU possum edict, but another country can’t drill oil, and move it to another country that wants to buy it? they can pass edict like that all day long, and enforce it within their membership. But when they start seizing ships from non-eu members on the high seas, that’s an act of War
I don’t think we want war. But, if they broke EU sanctions, they also broke US sanctions. I’m sure UK is asking us to let it go, so they can quietly get their ship back from Iran. Amazing how weak they have become, that Iran can push them around.
Not really, the EU is not a global government. I can see how they can forbidden Iranian oil from coming into any EU Nation but I can’t see how they can forbid a transaction between Iran and Syria.
Is there some other legal basis? Is the ship flagged in an EU country maybe?
That’s exactly right. The ship never should have been seized in the first place.
Whom do you propose we kill?
Wait until the ship hits international waters then sink it. After warning the crew to abandon ship.
At a basic level, the sanctions ARE an act of war. You are attacking your adversaries economy, seizing their assets, interfering with their international commerce, undermining their currency. It's a matter of how far one side is willing to go in order to influence the behavior of the other.
While I am retired, and out of the Persian Gulf business, I still have no interest in war with Iran. They are destabilizing force and a sponsor of terror in the region, but the GCC and Israel should be taking the lead here, and to a lesser degree, the EU.
“Amazing how weak they have become, that Iran can push them around”
I suspect in a one on one war, Iran would kick the crap outta the UK.
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