I shall be returning to this later.
Britain Pirates Iranian Ship 'Grace 1' - Iran Responds - Takes British Tanker Hostage
19
July, 2019
Updated
twice below
On
July the Brits used their colonial outlet Gibraltar to steal the
Iranian tanker 'Grace 1' and its load of 2 million barrel of oil. The
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps then threatened to take similar
measures against British ships. Today Gibraltar announce that it will
hold the 'Grace 1' for another month. We can guess that those plans
will soon change.
It
seems that today, at about 16:00 UTC, the IRGC got lucky.
The
British tanker 'Stena Impero' was on its way from Fujairah, UAE to
Jubail in Saudi Arabia.
Reading
the track below we can speculate what happened. Just when the ship
had passed through the Straits of Hormuz from east to west it was
approached by IRGC fast boots. The ship made a sharp turn south
towards Oman but could not outrun the IRGC boots. It was boarded. It
then slowed down, made a sharp 180 degree turn and sailed towards
north. It is now in Iranian waters. The last Automatic Identification
System (AIS) signal it emitted came in at about 17:30 UTC.
The
Stena Impero, IMO 9797400, is a British flagged oil products and
chemical tanker. Build in 2018 it has a deadweight tonnage of 49,682
metric tons. The owner is Stena Bulk XIII Cyprus Limited, which is
likely controlled by the Swedish company Stena
Bulk AB in
Goteborg, Sweden. The operator is Northern
Marine Ltd in
Glasgow, Scotland. The ship sails under the British flag.
The
ships arrest today is another consequence of Trumps idiotic anti-Iran
policies which the British minions seem to support. The U.S. tries to
build some military escort service for ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
But no
other country wants to join:
The United States is struggling to win its allies’ support for an initiative to heighten surveillance of vital Middle East oil shipping lanes because of fears it will increase tension with Iran, six sources familiar with the matter said.
...
“The Americans want to create an ‘alliance of the willing’ who confront future attacks,” a Western diplomat said. “Nobody wants to be on that confrontational course and part of a U.S. push against Iran.”
...
The British security source said it was not viable to escort every commercial vessel, a view shared by several other countries.
...
“It’s just impossible. The Strait is already too crowded,” an Asian official said of an escort system in the Strait of Hormuz which is 21 miles (33 km) wide at its narrowest point.
The
dimwits in London who listened to John Bolton and ordered to pirate
the Iranian ship are now in deep trouble. It was an utterly stupid
move. There is little they can do now except to let the 'Grace 1' go.
But who in Britain can now give the order? Theresa May is about gone
and Boris Johnson is still busy collecting votes to become the next
prime minister.
The IRGC Navy announced in statement that British oil tanker “Stena Impero” has been captured on Friday evening because of violating the international maritime regulations when crossing the Strait of Hormuz.
The UK oil tanker has been seized by the IRGC Navy forces in the first naval zone at the request of the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran at the province of Hormozgan, a statement said.
The British vessel has been taken to the port and delivered to the Ports and Maritime Organization for the legal and judicial processes, it added.
Update
19:00 UTC
Another
ship seems to have "violated international maritime
regulations". The 'Mesdar', IMO 9452672, passed east to west
through Iran's territorial waters north of Abu Musa island when it
suddenly made a 90 degree turn and sailed north towards the Iranian
coast.
With
333 meter length and 60 meter breadth the Liberian flagged ship is a
very large crude oil carrier. It has a deadweight tonnage of 315,802
tons. The ship came from Lanshan, China and was supposed to go to Ras
Tanura in Saudi Arabia. The last AIS signal from the ship was
received at 17:30 UTC. The manager/operator and owner(?) of the
Mesdar is Norbulk
Shipping Ltd in
Glasgow, Scotland.
Update
20:15 UTC
The
IRGC let the 'Mesdar' go after reminding her of the relevant rules.
The ship has turned southwest to continue its planned voyage.
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