Click to see full-size image
On August 20th, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that the US would take “every action” to prevent the Iranian supertanker Adrian Darya 1 from reaching Syria and offloading its crude oil.
Iran denied the tanker was ever headed to Syria.
Iran’s semi-official news agency ILNA, reported that an unnamed US State Department official on August 19th warned that aiding the Adrian Darya 1 has “potential criminal consequences.”
The US official, who was relaying the threat against provision of assistance to the supertanker, said Washington had conveyed its “strong position” to the government in Greece as well as all Mediterranean ports regarding likely facilitation of Adrian Darya 1’s journey.
The official alleged that Adrian Darya 1 was in the service of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Iran’s elite defense force, which Washington has unilaterally blacklisted as a “terrorist organization.”
The official added that any efforts to assist the tanker could be considered as providing material support to “a US-designated foreign terrorist organization.”
It is worth noting that both the Straits Times and Reuters reported that ILNA had claimed the Adrian Darya 1 was leased to the IRGC, which didn’t actually happen.
The only mention of possible leasing to the IRGC is to say that the US State Department alleged that this was the situation.
“The Grace 1 vessel, renamed Adrian Darya 1 after the seizure, is a Korean-made oil tanker owned by Russia which is currently leased to one Iran’s shipping lines,” ILNA said.
Separately, Fox News cited unnamed Western intelligence sources, claiming that another Iranian tanker, the Bonita Queen, is allegedly on its way to Dubai with an end goal of offloading 600,000 barrels of oil in Syria.
The Bonita Queen. Click to see full-size image
According to the report:
“The Bonita Queen loaded 600,000 barrels of crude oil on August 2 near the Iranian coast at Kharg Island. Shortly after, the tanker was de-flagged by the country of St. Kitts and Nevis, fearing retaliatory U.S. sanctions.
The vessel is now headed to Dubai, where it will refuel before beginning a months-long journey around the horn of Africa, through the Mediterranean and to the shores of Syria.”
As per the Bonita Queen’s route, it could potentially link up with two Syrian-owned tankers in the Mediterranean in the coming months and would allegedly transfer crude oil via ship-to-ship transfer.
Analysts have claimed to identify the Syrian tankers as the “Kader” and “Jasmine” — described as owned by a businessman said to be close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Muhammad al-Qatirji.
Qatirji is under US Department of Treasury sanctions.
The entire situation is based on an anonymous source, and there’s really no evidence, as Tanker Trackers admitted.
We can’t say for sure where Bonita Queen is going because she’s still anchored off of Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz. There are three other vessels currently en route to Syria. Also, BQ still doesn’t officially have an Iranian flag, and without it she’ll risk arrest at Suez https://t.co/TIb6YyFnnl
— TankerTrackers.com, Inc.⚓️? (@TankerTrackers) August 20, 2019
Meanwhile, in the Red Sea, the US-sanctioned Iranian tanker – the HELM, suffered a technical failure, 75-mile off Yanbu port.
The HELM. Click to see full-size image
NITC technical manager Jabal Ameli said the tanker’s staffs are trying to remove the technical problem, adding that the ship is in a stable situation. There are no injuries to the crew.
So far, it appears that the Adrian Darya 1 is an Iranian win against the US “maximum pressure” campaign, but subsequent actions and threats towards Greece and other possible ports will show whether the US can impede the Islamic Republic’s actions.
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The world is silent on US terrorism because then their corruption will expose.
Let’s hope the Greeks have grown a pair since the Zionist scum and Goldman Sachs Jew fuck global parasites bankrupted them. In any case, the Americunt arseholes who are bankrupt and already shitting in the streets like Indians, know the consequences of sea piracy.
pay in €s snd ask the unhinged states of A to mind its own friggin business – since tsipras it’s not very likely to happen since he chose to ignore the referendum where the people voted to leave the €-group after obama had a heart to heart talk to him and probably threatened him with eternal damnation and publishing of all those pedo-photos they claimed to have on him.
Greece has not grown balls nor brains but it is tiny and powerless. What do you expect from a nation of only ten million when natios in the fifty milios upwarda like France ,UK and Germany ,can’t do anything and they are also richer! Seems the USA is only scary to its allies anyway! Protection racket indeed!
Greeks also have a lot of Jew penetration and the Zionist airforce has bases there with NATO poodles and trains with the Greeks. And you are right, Greece is bankrupt and has a smaller economy than Bangladesh. It will cave in as usual.
Do Greece a favor and “sanction” them.
And just as suddenly the US is no longer bleating about “freedom of navigation”. The freedom of navigation is there to allow US warships access everywhere so that they can deprive others from freedom of the seas. The so called freedom of navigation is a piece of bastardy since it is always applied selectively.
Sadly it is only the beginning, and the US now seems to single out countrys that have even less power to stand up to US threats. Greece is especially vurnerable, as the last gov of Tsipras has pretty much fucked up their relationship with Russia, and after the Turkish Russian reapprochement, has in turn had not much of an alternative than to turn to the US. As the Turks illegally exploit Cyprus and Greece oil ressources in the mediterianian see, and threaten Greece on a daily basis, one can understand that such a tiny and powerless country turns to bigger powers for protection. When faced with a decision to either deny a tanker a port visit etc or to loose protection in face of Turkish threats, one can easily think how Greece (or any country in that position) will decide. Greece knows what the Turks are capable of, so while i have no Sympathy for us bigger countrys not standing up against the US, i do have Sympathy for Greece. It is just a fucked up situation.