On July 4, a detachment of Royal Marines and the authorities in Gibraltar seized a supertanker suspected of carrying oil to Syria on the belief it was breaching EU sanctions. 30 Royal Marines from 42 Commando were involved in the operation targeting Grace 1 that had sailed from Iran. The operation was made upon request from the US and the UK. If the oil on board is confirmed to be Iranian, the tanker would also be violating a US ban on Iranian oil exports.
Later, Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned the British ambassador in Tehran, Rob Macaire, over the incident describing it as an “illegal seizure”. Nonetheless, it’s unlikely that the tanker will be released soon. Such operations mark the start of a new round of pressure campaign on the government of the Bashar al-Assad as well as Iranian oil exports in the region.
On July 3 and July 4, a fighting broke out between the Turkish-backed militant group known as the National Syrian Army and joint forces of the Syrian Army and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) near the town of Hazwan in northern Aleppo. Turkish-backed militants admitted that at least 2 of their fighters were killed.
The army and the YPG jointly control an area between Afrin and the eastern countryside of al-Bab. Some Russian Military Police units are also deployed in key positions there. Tensions at the contact line between this area and the Turkish-occupied part of Syria grow after every successful attack of Kurdish rebels on Turkish targets in Afrin.
Several senior commanders of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) have inspected the frontlines with the Syrian Army in northwestern Hama. The TIP released photos of the visit on July 2. They faces of the commanders are blurred but they may have been Abu Rida al-Turkistani and Ibrahim Mansour, the top commanders of the TIP.
The interesting fact is that the visit took place in the area near to the Turkish military observation post in Shir Mughar. It confirms the freedom of movement that terrorist groups have under the nose of Turkish troops that allegedly deployed there to prevent such developments. Under the demilitarized zone agreement radicals like the TIP and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have to be withdrawn from the contact line. Nonetheless, this has never happened.
SouthFront: are you expecting a donation for creating a 2:42 minutes video of recycled news?
This is a highly humiliating event for Iran, guess the UK is gonna have cheap oil for the next month ?
Highly humiliating for America was kick in da ass in Iran in 1979. Period.
This is a highly humiliating event for UK. And peaceful people can’t buy anything from UK-companies since the war against Iraq. Just with every such UK-action some more people start to see UK in a similar way.
Kind of a stupid act for the government of Britain to practice piracy in this day and age, but then I guess old habits are hard to break; besides, there’s currently no one’s gold they can steal so this will have to do. Now if I’m not mistaken, their oil is going to have to pass through the Gulf so, since lawlessness (i.e. piracy) is the rule of the day, I’m sure they won’t be too upset when their tankers are grabbed as they pass through the Gulf.
Haha your comment made me laugh. Piracy was definitely the start of the grow of UK some hundred years ago, if there is a end and what the end will be, I can’t know. Lets say UK is back to the roots.^^
Will Assad ever get back with the Poms, will we ever hear that Cockney accent flourish in Damascus ever again? How sad probably not, Luckily Though Iran might retaliate and seize a Saudi Tanker or two, failing that Russia will do an oil-swap with Iran and supply Syria, it was EU sanctions that were violated here not US.
I would say if Iran doesn’t hit back Iran is a dead duck, here is the EU mocking their support for the JCPOA with an act of war, but the EU will not go to war with Iran the US will, like Libya very clever, the EU covertly said, Trump ordered this seizure maybe he did he’s certainly stupid enough, but maybe it was just Britain, after all Britain instigated Arab Spring just to be rid of Assad.
If the US attacks Iran the cry babies in the Pentagon will be buried under an ignore doctrine coming from Washington, they simply won’t do it because their not as stupid as Trump, the last thing the US can afford is to be, is exposed as being military inept.
By this piracy what kind of message UK want to convey to the world that UK is number one terrorist state.
That, and also that Gibraltar is not Spanish but English. And I say English because I dont believe the Scots agree to the English scum’s acting up.
I think it’s just showing loyalty to their colonial masters – USofA.
There’s no basis in international law that I’m aware of where national sanctions extend beyond the national waters of the sanctioning party. To the best of my knowledge, they have no basis for jurisdiction in international waters. And the Staights of Gibraltar are international waters. So it looks like the British are engaged in piracy.
lol, what if the oil was from some place else?
then it will be sent on its way — but literally no one believes that its not from Iran and even Iran is not suggesting otherwise.
This is the international law that governs international waters straights. I don’t see anything permitting seizures based on national sanctions that lack UN resolution authority:
“UNCLOS provides specific examples of non-innocent passage that are not in the 1958 Geneva Convention. These include, inter alia: the threat or actual use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity, or political independence of the coastal state, or in any other manner in violation of the United Nations Charter; using or even practicing with weapons; intelligence gathering; acts of propaganda; or launching, landing, or taking on board any aircraft or military device.[13] In such cases of non-innocent activities, the coastal state can prevent passage.”
– Transit Passage Rights in the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s Threats to Block the Passage of Oil Tankers –
https://www.asil.org/insights/volume/16/issue/16/transit-passage-rights-strait-hormuz-and-iran%E2%80%99s-threats-block-passage
Your analysis is 100% correct Richard.
that’s one way to retaliate for that drone, good for u.s., one of the faithful allies doing the bidding of the master?
If it is a conspiracy – tho there is no evidence that it is — you are correct that it would be a smart way to retaliate for the drone.
no one killed, yet message sent.
“International law expert Professor Francis Boyle is very outspoken on this topic as well as on others of equal importance. He defines blockades under international and US law as:
— “belligerent measures taken by a nation (to) prevent passage of vessels or aircraft to and from another country. Customary international law recognizes blockades as an act of war because of the belligerent use of force even against third party nations in enforcing the blockade. Blockades as acts of war have been recognized as such in the Declaration of Paris of 1856 and the Declaration of London of 1909 that delineate the international rules of warfare.”
America approved these Declarations, so they’re binding US law as well “as part of general international law and customary international law.” Past US presidents, including Dwight Eisenhower and Jack Kennedy, called blockades acts of war. So has the US Supreme Court. …
Iran poses no threat to the US, its neighbors, or any other nations, including Israel. Imposing a blockade against it violates the UN Charter and other international and US law. It will constitute an illegal act of aggression that under the Nuremberg Charter is the “supreme international crime” above all others.”
– Blockades: Acts of War –
https://www.globalresearch.ca/blockades-acts-of-war/9866
UK Joint Logistics Support Base Duqm Oman ://www.navyrecognition.com/images/stories/middle_east/qatar/exhibition/DIMDEX_2018/news/babcock_dry_dock_dimdex_925_001.jpg
Now that the UK has declared war on Iran with the start of a naval blockade. Iran is within it’s rights to respond with military action against the UK. Including seizing British ships.
Iran won’t likely do that though, because Iran is suffering under the sanctions and would get its ass handed to it in a shooting war.
On the other hand, Iran is driven by religious ideological zeal and could therefore behave in the fashion you suggest.
idiots always underestimate iran..
Anglos are the most evil and racist people on the planet.
I think you mean the zionists that control the UK are the most evil and racist people on the planet
zionists have zero “control” over the UK.
Read some history fool,Oliver Cromwell was funded by Jewish money to kill king Charles 1st and let them into the country to cause mayhem charging interest on money,the Balfour agreement which created israel was signed and devised in britain,the bank of England head is Jewish,Boris Johnson the soon to be prime minister is Jewish,I could go on and on, there’s one in every woodpile.
F U C K THE UK.
F U C K THE USA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMnLHmTXjgU
Try it stupid .
? Smoke pot everyday
[Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/E1mRAic.png)
Canadump !
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/508027fb83624594a949115c7d230f848fa5d47a9eac5a40198d80d81f3676d0.jpg
Britain has unknowingly open a can of worms with this act of piracy.
Rest assured that Iran will exponentially raise the heat on British troops and assets in Iraq and Syria. The British had better be prepared for a firm response. The Iranians are not to be messed around with.
it seems western pirates are still better than somalian black pirates, the world is expected to congratulate them.
Its only a boat , Russia is still stealing land by gun and its 2019 .
https://media.giphy.com/media/AssqAJR8ib5WmCNGOU/giphy.gif