Claims of a confrontation near the Strait of Hormuz involving the
British Heritage oil tanker are denied by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards,
who issued a statement, saying that there “has been no encounter with foreign ships including English ships.“
The British government suggested the HMS Montrose, a frigate, was
present and verbally warned off the Iranian boats, which was successful.
British officials say they do not intend to escalate tensions, nor do they intend to increase escorts of ships in the future.
US officials aren’t going to miss any chance to escalate against Iran, however, with the Pentagon saying they’re in the process of discussing the exact nature, but that they intend to provide military escorts for commercial shipping.
This is being pushed despite President Trump expressing opposition to
leaving such military escorts up to the United States, and calling on
other nations to do the escorting instead.
Despite hype over the British Heritage confrontation, it’s not clear
what really happened. Initial claims were that the HMS Montrose chased
off at least five Iranian boats, and turned its guns on them. Now,
officials say there were just three boats, and a verbal warning was all
it took. Either way, Britain doesn’t see this as a major issue.
To say that Britain doesn’t see this as a major issue when it was the main story yesterday on the BBC News website for both “UK News” and “World News” is interesting.
It was 5 gunboats and the Montrose turned its guns on them. It was 3 gunboats and they gave them a verbal warning. Do I hear 1 boat and a stern stare?
Moon of Alabama points out that the British Heritage “turned off its AIS signal during its passage through the Hormuz Strait. Turning off the AIS in a high traffic area and especially at night is quite dangerous. The AIS signals a ships type, speed and course and other ships use that data to plan their own course. But even without AIS the ship will still be visible on the Iranian surveillance radars that control the Hormuz Strait. A ship on the radar screen without AIS information would be suspicious.”
The Brits most likely used the ship as bait to draw Iran into boarding it in order to find out what was going on, whereupon, Royal Marines on the frigate would intervene. Iran didn’t take the bait. Britain is now trying to sweep this under the rug, denying it was any big deal.
As I said before, this incident is being used to 1) get the public used to the idea that Iran is harassing shipping, leading to 2) more US and allied navy ships in the Gulf, leading to 3) a blockade of Iran’s oil shipping, leading to 4) Iran closing the Straits, leading to 5) the Iran war, leading to 6) Profit!!
Thomas Carlson is right. I read that the ship turned off its transponder, too. That could easily be considered an attempt to bait Iran into responding, just like the previous drone turned off its transponder which resulted in its being shot down.
The fact that these operations are occurring are proof that the US and Britain intend war with Iran, despite any noises from Trump to the contrary.
The idea that Britain “doesn’t see this as a major issue” is just an attempt to shift blame once the war starts – which is what Trump will do as well.
Nothin’ to see here folks, just shootin’ at whales again in the Gulf of Tonk…er…Hormuz.