New statements from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are reporting that the MT Riah, a small, privately-owned oil tanker, was seized by Iranian forces on Sunday for carrying one million liters of contraband fuel.
They did not elaborate on what this contraband fuel amounted to, but the
ship was reportedly captured on Sunday near Larak Island. The UAE had
previously reported the ship “missing,” and the US said they suspected
Iran of it.
There are a lot of questions remaining about this, however, including
why Iran would seize a ship on Sunday and not confirm it until Thursday,
and how a Panamanian-flagged ship traveling from the UAE to an unknown
destination would be in any way smuggling in a way that impacts Iran.
The biggest question here, however, is why on Tuesday the Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement denying that anything had happened to the MT Riah, and that it had simply been towed to Iran for repairs.
Heavens! You mean the Iranian government was lying? I thought according to the wise people here that only the US government was capable of such a misdeed.
I think the wise people here thinks every government on the planet lies. Maybe the reason people complain about the US lies more often than other countries is because our lies tend to lead to wars that never f**king end.
I don’t agree. People here have a savior complex, which is understandable. Their own government sucks so much that they look on the horizon for a knight in shining armor to save them. The problem is that knight doesn’t exist, but the people who want him to exist indulge in all sorts of fantasies so that they can believe in him.
That a US citizen would be more concerned about US government lies, than Iranian government lies, somehow equates to a “savior complex” ? Bizarre. The US has been “crying wolf” for so long, only a gingoist fool would accept what comes out of their mouth.
I’m assuming the smuggling means smuggling oil from Iran. The initial report said oil was being transferred from dhows to the ship, with the intent of the ship then offloading to other ships. This would indicate the dhows were carrying oil stolen from either Iran or elsewhere. That would make perfect sense and would be perfect justification for the Iranian government to seize the ship.