Posted on 04/29/2015 6:07:57 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
The shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz have long been highlighted as a potential flashpoint amid the simmering geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran. Its waters are of particular geostrategic significance given that over a third of the world’s petroleum traded by sea passes through the region. Iran has repeatedly emphasized its dominance over the waters, threatening to blockade the strait in a time of crisis. Today, we saw an acute manifestation of Iran’s audacity when the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) seized and escorted the Marshall Islands-flagged MV Maersk Tigris, a shipping vessel belonging to Denmark’s A.P. Moller–Maersk Group and chartered by Singapore-based Rickmers Shipmanagement, toward the Iranian port at Bandar Abbas. The incident sparked a response by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT), which ordered the USS Farragut, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that was 60 miles from the point of the Tigris’ interception, to respond to the vessel’s distress signal. The incident took place as Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif led a delegation to New York City for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference at the United Nations, meeting with Western diplomats on the sidelines to discuss the ongoing P5+1 talks over his country’s nuclear program.
*snip*
The Marshall Islands isn’t normally a country whose name you’ll read at the center of a major international incident, but the fact that the Tigris was flagged with the country’s flag complicated the situation. After gaining independence from the United States in 1986, the Marshall Islands enjoys pseudo-protectorate status under the United States’ security umbrella
(Excerpt) Read more at thediplomat.com ...
Pint to the List Lucy!
Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization said a court had ordered the ship seized after ruling against Maersk Line in a case about debts brought by Pars Talaie, an Iranian company.
Tasnim, an Iranian news agency, quoted a Pars Talaie lawyer as saying the debt involved a cargo that Pars Talaie hired Maersk to take from the Iranian port of Abadan to Dubai more than a decade ago but which had never arrived.
Maersk said it was not the owner of the ship and that it was trying to establish the facts of any legal case. Rickmers said the Maersk Tigris was owned by “various private investors”.
Maersk said the vessel was confronted in international waters while Rickmers said the incident occurred in a widely recognized international shipping lane.
So, the decade-old suit was just a convenient pretext for stealing a container ship by force. Cute.
“Little” incidents are often the spark for big fires.
Well, if it’s Ok to seize a ship as a result of a court order and freedom of navigation is out the window, then those granted damages against Iran should be enjoying auctioning off Iranian vessels having been impounded at gunpoint by the USN.
US-flagged or not, the US response to this is bizarre...pending ‘deal’ or not.
How does Iran justify kidnapping the crew?
“After gaining independence from the United States in 1986, the Marshall Islands enjoys pseudo-protectorate status under the United States’ security umbrella”
HA! HA! Not anymore suckers. Obama is in command. The only order he knows is the stand down order.
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