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Iran seized on Friday two tankers – one registered in the UK, the other in Liberia – in the Strait of Ormuz, marking a dramatic escalation of the situation more and more. difficult in the Gulf.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards claimed to have taken its 23 crew members to Stena Impero harbor, the British flag. Iranian officials claimed that he had violated maritime regulations.
On Saturday, the semi-official Iranian news agency, Fars, said the ship had been taken to the port of Bandar Abbas and the crew remained on board the ship. According to the Iranian news agency IRNA, the tanker was seized as a result of a collision with an Iranian fishing boat. The fishing boat informed the organization of the ports and the Iranian shipping, which had informed the guardians of the revolution.
Iran Map Marking Bandar Abbas Harbor
The owners of Stena Impero, however, indicated that the vessel was "approached by unidentified boats and a helicopter during the transit of the Strait of Hormuz while the vessel was in international waters".
A second oil tanker, the Liberian-flagged Mesdar but operated by Britain, also made a sudden diversion Friday to the Saudi port of Ras Tanura. Follow-up data showed that he was heading north towards the Iranian coast before apparently leaving it. tracking signal.
Less than two hours later, the Mesdar tracking signal was reactivated. Fars, the semi-official Iranian news agency, announced that she had been briefly detained in the Strait of Hormuz and that she had been given notice to comply with environmental regulations before he can continue on his way.
The Glasgow-based Mesdar operator, Norbulk Shipping UK, confirmed that the ship had been boarded by armed guards, but was subsequently allowed to continue. "All members of the crew are safe and well," he said.
Stena Bulk and Northern Marine Management confirmed Friday in a statement that the ship was still not in contact.
Stena Impero was "in full compliance with all navigation and international regulations" when she was intercepted, the company said.
Erik Hanell, managing director of Stena Bulk, said: "There are 23 sailors on board, of Indian, Russian, Latvian and Filipino nationality. No injuries have been reported and the safety and well-being of our crew remain our main objective. "
Jeremy Hunt, British Foreign Secretary, told Sky News: "We are absolutely certain that if this situation is not resolved quickly, the consequences will be serious."
Jeremy Hunt warns Iran against the "serious consequences" of an oil tanker seizure – video
But he added: "We are not looking for military options, we are seeking a diplomatic way to resolve the situation, but we are very clear that this needs to be resolved."
He said Stena Impero had been surrounded by four Iranian ships overflown by a helicopter, while 10 Iranian speedboats had converged on the Mesdar.
"These crises are unacceptable. It is essential that the freedom of navigation is maintained and that all vessels can move freely and safely in the area, "said Hunt.
Late in the evening of Friday, the British government advised British ships to stay out of the area "for an interim period".
"We remain deeply concerned about the unacceptable actions of Iran, which pose a clear challenge to international freedom of navigation," the government said in a statement following a meeting of ministers to discuss the incident occurred in the Strait of Ormuz.
"As the Minister of Foreign Affairs said, our response will be considered strong and the consequences will be serious if the situation is not resolved.
"We remain in close contact with our international partners and there will be other meetings over the weekend."
Donald Trump, the US president, said Friday night that the United States would talk to Britain about these incidents.
The guards of the revolution declared that they seized the Stena Impero, invoking the international maritime law for their actions. Iran Front Page, quoted by an unidentified military source, was quoted as saying that the tanker had "crossed a road other than the waterway in the Strait of Ormuz, had turned off its transponders and paid no attention to Iran's warnings when seized by the [Revolutionary Guards] forces".
The seizure of tankers comes hours after the Gibraltar authorities announced that they were prolonging the custody of the Iranian tanker seized by the Royal Marines on July 4, suspected of sending oil to Syria, in violation of an EU embargo. Tehran denounced the detention of Grace 1 as a piracy carried out by order of Washington.
Iranian politicians are calling for retaliation and the country's forces, led by the Revolutionary Guards, are acting more and more aggressively to disrupt the shipping routes in the Gulf.
Stena Impero, a 30,000-tonne British-flagged ship owned by Sweden, was heading for Saudi Arabia when it suddenly left the international shipping lanes. Tracking data indicated that he was heading north towards the Iranian island of Qeshm, where the Iranian Revolutionary Guards have a substantial base.
gulf map
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards had already tried to capture a British tanker six days after the seizure of Grace 1. On 10 July, a British warship, HMS Montrose, intervened to hunt three Iranian military ships attempting to deflect a British oil tanker, British Heritage, to Iranian territory.
The incidents take place in the midst of a battle of nerves on Gulf oil export routes, involving close clashes between Iranian, British and US military forces.
Earlier Friday, Tehran denied Trump's claims that US forces shot down an Iranian drone on the Gulf. The main spokesman for the Iranian army said that all drones had returned safely to the base, but that Trump was adamant. "No doubt about it … we shot it," said the US president.
Trump said Thursday that the USS Boxer had taken defensive action after the unmanned vehicle approached within 1,000 meters of the warship and ignored several calls for demolition.
The prospect of negotiations likely to defuse the standoff has appeared more distant than ever on Friday, when a senior US official rejected a nuclear bid proposed the day before by Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif at the time. a visit to New York. The official suggested the offer was not serious and called on "an effective decision-maker" to begin talks to "end Iran's evil nuclear ambitions".
Trump hesitated over what he hoped Iran would do in return for a lifting of the oil and gas embargo imposed by the United States since the exit of the United States. an international nuclear agreement with Tehran (Joint Global Action Plan or JCPOA) last May. year. The brutal response to Zarif's offer suggests that the administration, led by National Security Advisor John Bolton, is currently implementing Iranian politics.
In July 2015, Iran and a six-nation negotiating group reached a historic agreement called the Comprehensive Global Action Plan, ending a 12-year stalemate over Tehran's nuclear program. The agreement, reached in Vienna after almost two years of intensive talks, has limited the Iranian program, to rebadure the rest of the world that it could not develop nuclear weapons, in return for Sanctions.
The JCPOA is fundamentally a simple market: Iran accepts the strict limits of its nuclear program in exchange for an escape from the sanctions imposed on its economy more than a decade before the agreement. As part of the deal, Iran disconnected two-thirds of its centrifuges, shipped 98 percent of its enriched uranium and filled its plutonium-producing reactor concrete. Tehran has also accepted extensive scrutiny by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has verified ten times since the agreement and last February that Tehran has complied with its terms. In return, all nuclear-related sanctions were lifted in January 2016, allowing Iran to reconnect with global markets.
The six major powers involved in the nuclear talks with Iran belonged to the P5 + 1 group: the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – and the Germany. The nuclear deal is also enshrined in a UN Security Council resolution that incorporates it into international law. The 15 members of the council at the time unanimously approved the agreement.
On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump withdrew his country from the agreement. Iran has announced its partial withdrawal from the nuclear deal a year later.
Saeed Kamali Dehghan, Iranian correspondent
Zarif proposed that the Iranian Parliament immediately ratify the acceptance of a permanent regime of intrusive international inspections, known as the Additional Protocol, to ensure that Iran does not secretly manufacture nuclear weapons. Iran is currently respecting the protocol in accordance with the provisions of the JCPOA and was to ratify it, which would make it law, in October 2023.
Zarif proposed to advance this agreement by more than four years in return for immediate relief from the sanctions. The offer was probably never accepted – the United States has a long list of demands for Iran's activities – but it indicated a willingness to reach an agreement with Washington outside the JCPOA framework. The American reaction, however, was scathing.
"If Iran wants to make a serious move, it should begin by immediately halting uranium enrichment and asking a real decision-maker to negotiate an agreement providing for the definitive end of harmful nuclear ambitions. from Iran, including the development of missiles with nuclear capability, "said a senior official of the administration.
Iran has consistently refused to give up uranium enrichment, whether for civilian or military purposes. The efforts of the previous US administrations to stop it have led to an exponential expansion of Iran's enrichment capacity. The JCPOA accepted Iran's right to enrich uranium, but imposed strict upper limits on its purity and other elements of the nuclear program in return for reduced sanctions.
The gap in negotiations between Washington and Tehran has never been so great, the struggle between the two countries has moved more and more in the Gulf.
The Supreme Court of Gibraltar extended Grace 1's detention at the hearing on Friday after Gibraltar's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo held talks with Iranian officials at the Foreign Ministry. Picardo also met with Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
The UK sought legal badurances that the oil tanker would not travel to Syria to unload 2.1 million barrels of oil when it was released because it was suspected of attempting to detain him.
Tehran says that it is not party to an EU embargo and insists that the ship was not bound for Syria.
Bob Sanguinetti, managing director of the UK Chamber of Shipping, said: "We strongly condemn the capture of Stena Impero … Our priority is the safety and well-being of the crew. We call on the British government to take steps to ensure that their return is rapid and safe.
"This incident represents an escalation. While we call for a measured response, it is also clear that additional protection of merchant vessels must be put in place to enhance security and ensure free trade in the region. "
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labor Party, said: "The escalation may slip into an even deeper conflict. President Trump's decision to dismantle the Iranian nuclear deal fueled the risk of a major conflict. A negotiated recovery of the nuclear deal through the UN is essential for easing tensions and defusing the threat of war in the Gulf. "
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