Naval drama(s) off Arabia (catch all)

[AdamG]

Al Arabiya News, Reuters
Tuesday, 28 April 2015

Iran has opened fire at a U.S. cargo ship and directed it to Bandar Abbas port on the southern coast of Iran, Al Arabiya News Channel has reported on Tuesday, citing Iranian news agencies.

Both state-owned FARS and IRNA news agencies, said the cargo ship was American, however a Pentagon spokesman confirmed to Reuters that the ship, the MV Maersk Tigirs, was a Marshal Island-flagged vessel and that Iranian forces had indeed boarded it.

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

Details are still coming in, but it seems clear that the Iranian Navy seized a container ship called the Maersk Tigris that was transiting the Strait of Hormuz this morning. The ship, flagged in the Marshall Islands and owned by a Danish conglomerate, was traveling on an internationally recognized shipping route when it was approached by Iranian vessels that ordered it to “proceed further” into Iranian waters. The captain refused, and the Iranian vessels fired warning shots. The captain then “complied with the Iranian demand and proceeded into Iranian waters in the vicinity of Larak Island,” according to a Pentagon spokesman. The Iranians have boarded the ship.

As the news of this act of piracy started to circulate, and after some confusion about whether or not the ship was U.S. flagged (it’s not), there was some discussion on social media about whether or not the United States is obligated to defend the interests of the Marshall Islands (it is) and whether or not there were any American citizens aboard (there don’t appear to be). Some of this was understandable fact finding, but some of it also seemed motivated by a desire to downplay the significance of the incident, and to diminish the expectation that the United States needs to respond, even as the Navy has already ordered a destroyer to monitor the situation.

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

Maersk Line, the Danish shipper that chartered a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo vessel which Iranian forces have captured, said the reason for stopping the ship could be related to a 2005 cargo case.

Maersk Line spokesman Michael Storgaard said the company learned Thursday that an Iranian appeals court had ruled Maersk must pay $3.6 million for a 10-container cargo delivered a decade ago on behalf of an Iranian company in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. However, the cargo never was collected, according to Storgaard, adding it eventually was disposed of by local authorities.

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

Iran's Revolutionary Guards 'harassed' a US-flagged commercial ship just days before it seized a vessel carrying cargo and 34 sailors, it has emerged.

The two incidents have raised concerns about the security of shipping lanes in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren said.

News of the first incident was revealed by the Pentagon after Iranian guards seized MV Maersk Tigris this week, by firing warning shots across the vessel's bows.

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

[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