A cargo ship was reportedly stopped and seized by the Iranian navy on Tuesday, according to multiple reports from the region.Iran fired at the cargo ship and has directed it to Bandar Abbas port on the southern coast of Iran, according to a report by Al Arabiya News Channel.
The Pentagon says the ship at the center of the dispute is the MV Maersk Tigris, and is flagged from the Marshall Islands, according to Reuters.
Separately, Iran's official news agency said the ship was "stopped and seized" by Iranian warships.
"The Iranian Navy has confiscated the American trade vessel with all its 34 crew for trespassing on Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf," Fars News Agency reported.
The defense of the Marshall Islands, though they’re nominally an independent nation-state, is guaranteed by the United States. Therefore:
Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said the cargo ship’s master had initially refused an Iranian order to move further into Iranian waters, but after the warning shots were fired the MV Maersk Tigris complied.Warren said the cargo ship has been boarded by Iranians, but no one has been injured and no Americans are involved.
Warren said the cargo ship issued a distress call and the US Naval Forces Central Command, based in the area, sent a US destroyer and an aircraft to the area of the incident to monitor the situation.
While the Marshall Islands is a sovereign country, the U.S. “has full authority and responsibility for security and defense of the Marshall Islands,” according to the U.S. State Department. Maersk, the shipping line whose vessel was commandeered, is one of the largest employers of U.S. merchant mariners, and “operate[s], manage[s] and maintain[s] ships for the U.S. government ships in preposition and surge sealift capacities,” according to its website.
The British backed down from a similar confrontation with Iran. At the moment it looks as if the U.S. will display more resolve. At the moment.
Given the nature of the current Administration, uncertainty will reign until the matter is fully resolved.
3 comments:
We will do nothing. The press won't comment.
It's a non-event.
"uncertainty will reign until the matter is fully resolved"
Need it be said? "Resolution" does not necessarily mean "resolution to the satisfaction of American citizens".
Either Iran is filled with Loki-like leadership playing at an incredibly complicated and long con, or there are factions working at opposing odds within their government. My money's on the later.
It seems one group (publicly at least) trying to come to some sort of deal with the United States and the world governments. Not trying to imply that they are trying to become good, respectable global citizens, but instead trying to cut a deal that lets them keep keeping on while getting everyone off their backs.
While another group seems to like being the bad-boys on the block, and keeps taking action that they hope will push our government to walk away from the negotiating table.
Little do they realize that our current Administration is so desperate for a legacy (and maybe just a little to sympathetic to their cause) there is nothing short of the Revolutionary Guard driving AFVs into the National Mall that would cause them to walk away.
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