US State Department officials have issued a flurry of statements
regarding Iran’s oil tanker the Adrian Darya 1, which left Gibraltar and
is reportedly en route to Greece. US officials are warning that they will sanction anyone who touches the tanker.
The US is angry because they were trying to convince Gibraltar to give
the tanker, and the oil, to them, though Gibraltar rejected this effort.
Mike Pompeo threatened US action if the ship tried to get to Syria, but officials are also unhappy with the idea of them going to Greece, as Iranian officials have indicated.
Indeed, the whole reason Gibraltar released the tanker was that it was
going to Greece, not Syria, and that there are no EU laws to preclude
that. The US, however, says they will treat this as “support for terrorism” on Greece’s part.
Greek officials say they haven’t had any specific requests for the
tanker to dock yet. That’s not to say it isn’t going to, and it’s likely
that the tanker would be selling the oil to a private EU company. Under
the P5+1 nuclear deal, European companies are free to buy from Iran,
though in practice many have feared US punishment too much to do so.
Guess they’ll be forced to go to Syria. Oh, rats!
Bad Touch – Tanker Edition.
Should China buy the whole lot
USA will do zip-squat.
America, the so-called Leader of the Free World, in reality is the world dictator nation–but one that is increasingly insane with imperial hubris.
The Americans delude themselves that they have a divine right to economically sanction whomever they please and dictate the behavior of nations across the planet–always rationalized behind contrived lies like terrorism, WMDs, or democracy.
The same America that is backing and supporting jihadist terrorism against Syria including rebranded Al-Queda outfits like Al Nusra Front is trying to threaten other nations over this Iranian oil tanker issue … under the guise of fighting terrorism!
A Special Relationship: The United States is teaming up with Al Qaeda, again
https://harpers.org/archive/2016/01/a-special-relationship/
Once again, the goal is to ramp up the notion of a blockade of Iranian oil – both by sanctions and by actually seizing ships – all with the end game of getting a war started with Iran.
My guess is unless the tanker in this case ends up going to a country that doesn’t care about US sanctions – like China – it will be seized again within the next week or two by some other poodle country.
The US goal is clearly to make the Mediterranean a “no-go” for Iranian tankers. The US will follow that up by seizing ships leaving the Gulf – and the war will be on.
Greece was mentioned briefly regarding this vessel. If Greece allows it to dock in one of its ports, then as part of the EU will the US tangle with the European bloc in a sanctions war? The EU has defied Washington already so a sanctions war with the EU could be economic suicide for the US, but unless the world defies it when appropriate it achieves world domination by default.
I doubt the US will do anything about this Iranian tanker docking in one of Greece’s ports. As you rightly said, the EU defied Washington already so a sanctions war with the EU would be economic suicide for the US. This certainly won’t go well with the American public and may result in a civil war.