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On July 19th, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized a UK-flag oil tanker called the Stena Impero.
It was detained by the IRGC after a request by the Hormuzgan province’s Ports and Shipping Organization, for not observing international maritime regulations in the waterway.
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According to an unnamed military source cited by Iran’s state outlet – IRNA, the tanker had turned off its tracker and was moving the wrong way, which led to the seizure.
The tanker had down its tracker and did not notice signals it received from Iran and based on the international maritime regulations; it was detained because of that.
On the following day, the Director-General of the Ports and Maritime Department of Hormuzgan province Allahmorad Afifipour said the Stena Impero was seized for violation of the International Law of the Sea and ignoring the principle of passage without damage to the environment.
“The British vessel hit a fishing trawler, which needs to be investigated,” he said.
An Iranian fishing ship contacted the British vessel, but there was no answer; so, as the regulations demand, the crew of the fishing ship radioed the Ports and Maritime Organization to inform them of the accident, he added.
“Stena Impero crashed into the fishing vessel,” Afifipour claimed.
Following that, the IRGC Navy guided the vessel to Bandar Abbas, he noted.
As of midday on July 20th, the crew of the tanker remains on board of the ship for safety reasons.
“There are 18 Indian and five crew members from Russia, Philipines, Latvia and other countries on board of Stena Impero. The captain is Indian, but the tanker is UK-flagged,” Afifipour said.
In response to the seizure, Britain warned of “serious consequences” if Iran didn’t release the tanker and the sailors.
“These seizures are unacceptable. It is essential that freedom of navigation is maintained and that all ships can move safely and freely in the region,” British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said.
Iran’s actions in the Strait came just hours after authorities in Gibraltar agreed to extend the detention of an Iranian oil tanker in its custody for 30 days. That ship, the Grace 1, was seized by British authorities on July 4th, accused of attempting to transport oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions.
Whether the seizure of the Stena Impero is a retaliation in some sort comes down to speculation, but keeping in mind the accusations and alleged false-flag operations in the Persian Gulf in recent months, its possible that this was also an attempt to cause a stir by the Washington establishment.
Allegedly, a second UK tanker – the Mesdar was also seized, but there is no confirmation and reports of any such event.
#Iran
Another #UK Tanker seized!There is unconfirmed news about the second British tankers "Mesdar" that has also been seized by #IRGC in #PersianGulf pic.twitter.com/BQQavPddQV
— IWN (@A7_Mirza) July 19, 2019
CNN reported, citing Mesdar’s manager, Norbulk Shipping UK that the ship had been released and everything was in order.
“All crew are safe and well. 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,” the company said.
On July 18th, Iran said that it had seized a small ship trying to smuggle a million liters of oil.
The IRGC public relations department said that IRGC is closely monitoring vessels passing through the the Persian Gulf in order to identify and deal with organized smuggling.
IRGC’s Patrolling boats on Sunday July 14, 2019 confiscated a foreign ship carrying one million liters of smuggled fuel, it said.
The statement said the vessel with the capacity of carrying some two million liters of fuel had some 12 crews on board and was delivering smuggled fuels from Iranian barges to foreign ships in remote areas.
The IRGC said it had initially responded to distress calls from a ship on Sunday but when they searched it, they discovered it was a smuggling operation, according to Iranian state media.
The footage released by Press TV shows two smaller vessels maneuvering around a larger ship, with clear markings saying “RIAH” and “Panama.” It is not clear when the video of the tanker was filmed.
#IRGC releases footage showing seizure of ship smuggling fuel in Persian gulf#StraitOfHormuz #PersianGulf #tanker pic.twitter.com/v3RO4SBuGw
— Press TV (@PressTV) July 18, 2019
Video released by #IRGC shows the foreign fuel tanker’s main deck #StraitOfHormuz #PersianGulf #tanker #Iran pic.twitter.com/V8wuBhkCGF
— Press TV (@PressTV) July 18, 2019
Separately, on July 18th, the US claimed that the warship USS Boxer had downed an Iranian drone flying over the Strait of Hormuz.
“This is the latest of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran against vessels operating in international waters. The US reserves the right to defend our personnel, facilities and interests,” Trump said. “The drone was immediately destroyed,” he added.
He added that the Iranian drone had come to about 900 meter of the US Wasp-class amphibious assault ship ‘USS Boxer’ and had ignored warnings.
The Pentagon later said the Navy ship had taken “defensive action” against an Iranian drone.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister dismissed the claim on Twitter and mocked the US saying that it could have accidentally downed its own drone.
“We have not lost any drone in the Strait of Hormuz nor anywhere else. I am worried that USS Boxer has shot down their own UAS [Unmanned Aerial System] by mistake!” he wrote.
Spokesman of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, too, said that Iran’s drone fleet was untouched and that it had lost no unit.
To substantiate the claims that no Iranian drone was downed on July 19th, the IRGC released a video allegedly taken by the “downed” drone, which reportedly landed safely after filming it.
The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps has released the first photos of the US Wasp-class amphibious assault ship ‘USS Boxer’ as a document to reject US president’s baseless claim about targeting Iranian drone in Strait of Hormuz.
The IRGC aerospace forces have monitored entrance of the USS Boxer and 5 other ships since their entry to Strait of Hormuz, the IRGC said in a statement.
On July 19th, an anonymous Trump administration official told reporters that the US would start downing any Iranian drones that fly too close and has “clear evidence” that it shot down such a drone, after the IRGC published the video.
All of this takes place while Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is in New York to meet with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
During his visit, Zarif said that Tehran could immediately ratify a document prescribing more intrusive inspections of its nuclear programme if the US abandoned its economic sanctions, an offer the US dismissed.
The anonymous Trump administration official said that Zarif appeared to have no decision-making ability and that Washington “would not consider anything from him serious”. The official added that the US would need to hear from the “supreme leader or the president” in order to have negotiations.
Zarif blamed Washington for the escalation of tensions and accused the Trump administration of “trying to starve our people” and “deplete our treasury” through economic sanctions.
“We live in a very dangerous environment,” he said. “The US has pushed itself and the rest of the world into probably the brink of an abyss.”
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The Pentagon later said the Navy ship had taken “defensive action” against an Iranian drone.
Trump, trying to look and talk tough, denouncing Obama as too soft about detention of US sailors and badly humiliated after his absolute inaction following losing one of their navy’s 2 marine intelligence drone, hears that sentence as “destroying”. Watching the footage, I’m now convinced “the defencive action” consisted of waving their fists and cursing in the general direction of the drone. FWIW, a competent EW results in landing an allegedly sophisticated stealth drone (and numerous others, our collection of intact US UAVs are almost complete!), or firing one single missile to bring another one down, one which is armed with many techs to counter incoming missiles.
With our drone apparently safe and sound, I hope they fully tested their new shiny LMADIS on it, we’ll need every intel we can get our hands on in order to prevent a full blown and bloody war. Let’s hope LMADIS actually works and is not just another expensive junk.
Regarding Dr. Zarif and his authority, yet again the US officials are projecting. Iran is not like the US, where the president says something and his FM, national security advisors, generals, vice, speaker and etc say various different things, containing all possible 360 degrees. Zarif is the head of diplomatic efforts of the country, end of story and there’s no way president or leader weaken him by giving the Americans what they want and actually confirm their delusion. The problem for Americans is, his offer (fully coordinated with the country’s decision makers, including the president, the leader, parliament, national security supreme council, etc.) is too good to refuse, with this offer he annihilated one of their most important justifications to breach JCPoA and UNSCR 2231, the “sunset clause”, hence the lame excuse that he has no authority.
Jews are hitting at faraway Iraqi hezbollah cuz they’re scared to hit at Lebanon’s hezbollah who live next door to israel lol!
The Yinon Plan is Dead, Long Live the Persian Cat! https://platosguns.com/2019/07/19/the-yinon-plan-is-dead-long-live-the-persian-cat/
Looks like Putins days are numbered EH , Big party at red square and its only going to get better sit back and enjoy the show . Beer and popcorn go great with the fun .
NOW Iran the terrorist dump is saying it seized the ship because it hit a fishing boat fukkin idiots , this is like all the bullshittt excuses putin gave after he shot down MH17 .
tonto -two syllables, I know you try hard but still lacking in coherence and sense. try to improve the verbosity and rationale.
Your mom should have eaten you when your sorry azz bones were soft , now go jump off that bridge POS.
Putin needs to fire your sorry azz you suck at being a lowlife troll .