Naval drama(s) off Arabia (catch all)

[OUTLAW 09]

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News...-sailors-.html



http://freebeacon.com/blog/irans-hij...ge-to-the-usa/



http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/04...-to-2005-case/


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz3YoDcKYAN

IRGC has used this for two reasons--to signal their discontent that Assad forces are taking beating at the hands of moderate Syrians and Islamists using a large number of TOWs and MILANs. Seems that Hezbollah has been whip lashed all over Syria and Iraq and have taken beatings as well recently.

Secondly they are signaling in two short press comments yesterday and today that once the nuclear deal is signed "sanctions" come off immediately!!

No one in DC seems to have noticed a deliberate Iranian non linear warfare concept in play being carried out by Khamenei and the IRGC.

[davidbfpo]

To my knowledge enforcing a civil court judgement is rarely the responsibility of a state body. It is plausible that the ship's seizure was an opportunity for the IRGC to enforce a civil court judgement and an opportune time too.

[davidbfpo]

Danish shipping company Maersk had insisted on the release of the vessel and its 24 crew members. The IRNA report did not give details on whether a years-old debt case was settled, as demanded by Iran for the release of the ship. Iran’s foreign ministry had said on Wednesday that the negotiations between “the private complainant and the other party were going on”.

Link:http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...rait-of-hormuz

[CrowBat]

Much Ado about Nothing...

The Iran's Port and Maritime Organization has menahwile released the ship, stating that, 'the court verdict was against the vessel only, and the crew of the vessel had not been subject to any restrictions from leaving the port or the country'.

Maersk Tigris is on her way since yesterday.

[davidbfpo]

I have merged the two recent threads on possible naval confrontations off Yemen or in the Persian Gulf - into this one. One thread was in the OEF Horn of Africa forum and was moved to the more appropriate Middle East forum.

[AdamG]

Tehran (AFP) - A senior Iranian commander warned the United States that a "fire might start" over an aid ship bound for Yemen on Wednesday after the Pentagon urged it to change course.

Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri said it was Iran's right to deliver relief supplies to Yemen as a humanitarian ceasefire takes hold and rejected Washington's request that aid be taken instead to a United Nations hub to allay worries the cargo might be military.

"I should say frankly that Iran's restraint has a limit," Jazayeri, a deputy chief of staff, told Iran's Arab-language Al-Alam television late on Tuesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/iran-warns-us-...110906555.html

[CrowBat]

Tensions are indeed slowly increasing in the area south-east of the Gulf of Aden, where a group of Egyptian and Saudi warships is maintaining a naval blockade of local ports, while a USN task force is monitoring the approach of an Iranian ship loaded with medical supplies - plus activity of several warships of the Iranian Navy nearby.

One of the latter had an 'interesting encounter', two days ago, as cited in Iranian report below.

Note: while some of formulations might appear outright dilletantic, more important is that it airs a similar concern of possible attacks by suicide boats, like that experienced by the USN in Yemen at earlier times (mind USS Cole, back in October 2000):

Iranian Warship's Missile System Locks on Invading Target in Gulf of Aden

Iranian destroyer, Alborz, locked its missile systems on an invading vessel in the Gulf of Aden after a high-speed boat left Yemen's coasts and rushed to attack it.

The Iranian destroyer's missile systems locked on the target after an invading high-speed boat appeared on the monitor screens of the radar systems in Alborz operations room.

According to reports, the invading vessel changed course and returned to the coast after the Iranian destroyer warned it would target the vessel in seconds.

"If the terrorists ignored our warning, they would be killed with the first bullets of Alborz," Commodore Hassan Maqsoudlou, the captain of Alborz destroyer, said.

He underlined that the Iranian Naval forces are prepared at any moment to defend the Islamic Iran's interests.

The incident took place as Iran's 34th fleet of warships is in the Gulf of Aden on an anti-piracy mission, and as an Iranian cargo ships carrying humanitarian aid is on its way to Yemen and as the naval fleets of the US and some other western countries have several times reduced their distance from the Iranian fleet in violation of the international rules.

In a last such case, the US and French warships and military aircraft changed their direction in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday night after being warned by an Iranian flotilla to keep distant.

The US and French reconnaissance planes, helicopters and warships approached the Iranian warships in a provocative move, ignoring the internationally set 5-mile standard distance from Iran's 34th fleet of warships deployed in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday night.

The vessels and aircraft then received a warning from Alborz destroyer, apologized and rapidly changed direction.

Also on May 4, a US warship and military planes changed their direction as they were patrolling in the Gulf of Aden after they came close to an Iranian naval fleet and were warned to move away.

2 US reconnaissance planes named P3C (Papa 3 Charlie) and US Navy destroyer, DDG81, approached several Iranian warships in the Gulf of Aden.

The US Navy vessel and planes then received a warning from 'Alborz' and changed direction.

The Navy's 34th Fleet, comprising Alborz destroyer and Bushehr helicopter-carrier warship, is conducting anti-piracy patrols in the high seas and Gulf of Aden.
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