British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt spoke with his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, over the phone on Saturday. The two discussed the Grace I, the Iranian oil tanker seized by British Royal Marines off the coast of Gibraltar on July 4th.
Hunt said in a tweet on Saturday, "Just spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif. Constructive call. I reassured him our concern was destination not origin of the oil on Grace One that UK would facilitate release if we received guarantees that it would not be going to Syria, following due process in Gib(Gibraltar) courts."
In another tweet Hunt said, "Was told by FM Zarif that Iran wants to resolve issues and is not seeking to escalate."
Both Spain’s foreign minister and Iranian officials accused the US of ordering the British to seize the tanker. Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said on Friday, "The decisions of Her Majesty’s government of Gibraltar were taken totally independently, based on breaches of existing law and not at all based on extraneous political considerations." Picardo claims Gibraltar decided to seize the ship because it was suspected of delivering oil to Syria, which would be a violation of US and EU sanctions.
Although no US officials admitted to ordering the seizure, John Bolton celebrated the news on twitter, "Excellent news: UK has detained the supertanker Grace I laden with Iranian oil bound for Syria in violation of EU sanctions. America & our allies will continue to prevent regimes in Tehran & Damascus from profiting off this illicit trade."
The British accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of attempting to seize a British ship in the Straits of Hormuz on Wednesday. Iranian officials denied the allegations, and there is still no evidence to prove the incident actually happened but this did not stop mainstream media outlets from reporting this as fact. CNN used two unnamed US officials as their source. The CNN article even said, "A US aircraft was overhead and recorded video of the incident, though CNN has not seen the footage."
On Thursday FM Zarif said of the claims, "They make such claims to create tension, yet these claims are worthless and they have made many such claims." No footage has been released to any media outlets to prove the IRGC approached a British ship.
Dave DeCamp is a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn NY, focusing on US foreign policy and wars. He recently joined Antiwar.com as an assistant editor. He is on Twitter at @decampdave.
Whoever thought this up (probably Trumpster, Boris Johnson) is now going to have to backtrack to save face. Spain was upset that the Brits did this in their territorial waters and they’re right, it was piracy pure and simple. Is the UK trying to make Britain great again? No chance of that, Boris.
I prefer the handle Sunkist for the orange one.The Florida sun has also addled his brain, assuming it was normal at birth.
There are two types of unnameds and they are not related: Those who would get into trouble, typically because what they leak affects their own organisation or group inside the organisation, and those who would not get into trouble, typically because those being damaged are on the outside ,and usually the leakers are spreading lies while protecting their organisation with deniability.
So this is of the second type.
Whole thing is just a move to establishing seizing Iranian oil shipments anywhere pursuant to Trump’s intent to completely stop them. This will lead inexorably to a blockade of Iran, and then war.
How can these “sanctions” be “legal” if they are not endorsed by the United Nations? The seizure of the ship was unlawful since they breach the freedom of navigation.
Don’t ask such reasonable questions. Just shut-up and watch the MSM. They’ll tell you what you need to know and how to think.
🙂
They – MSM fake news – will have a hard job shutting me up…………
I don’t they will have a hard time . They can easily remove you from the internet and where else can you talk
EU and US sanctions against Syria?
Embarrassing the UK is now doing the bidding of John Bolton of all people.
The Brits have a long history of John Boltons, or should I say “John Bullton”
Somebody made a good point when they suggested the tanker may have been stopped at America’s insistence because the fuel it would have provided might have been used by Syria’s military to clear Idlib of US-backed terrorists.
You’d think this would raise the question as to why exactly is Syria being sanctioned? Is this one of those times where we are trying to help the average Syrian by ruining his/her life?
It is one of those times, the Syrian people are being treated the same as Venezuelans and Iranians.
I know, where’s the gratitude?
Since when have countries been able to impose sanctions on other countries without the United Nations being involved in the process?
Since when has it been legal for countries to wage economic warfare on other countries, without being sanctioned themselves by the UN?
Since when has piracy been a legal process?
EU has sanctions against Syria, which means no EU state may supply oil to Syria, Iran is not a member of the EU, and is not bound by the sanctions rule.
England has no legal basis to enforce their sanctions ruling upon third parties, as the US does – all illegal.
EU sanctions only apply to EU members, so that’s between them. They are not set up and never have been for extra-territorial claims such as this totally illegal harassment and seizure of the Iranian tanker.
Iran is not an EU member and so not in breach of any EU sanctions. The UK is trying to pull bullshit with this like the US is always doing now, sanctioning the whole world, the UK thinking it has some kind of authority which it really doesn’t.
since there are no UN sanctions in effect against Syria getting oil from anyone, neither the EU nor the UK has any authority whatsoever to impound the tanker. That’s how I understand it.
The US and their UK poodles will pay for this in the long run… Iran will make sure of that…. that’s the asymmetrical game now