Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz compromised. Europeans in support of London
(B2) The arrest by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards of the Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz provoked cascading reactions
The tanker Stena Impero was sailing towards Saudi Arabia when the Iranian military intervened in the afternoon of Friday (July 19) to stop it. As on parade, masked men from the commandos of the Revolutionary Guards descend along a rope from the helicopter which transported them, while a speedboat surrounded the boat. The video delivered by the Iranians is quite impressive.
On the Iranian side, this intervention is justified by a collision of the ship flying the British flag, but owned by a Swedish shipowner, with a fishing boat. But it is more certainly the boarding in an identical manner by the British navy of an Iranian ship off Gibraltar, suspected of smuggling oil to Syria, which is rather the cause. The ship, along with its crew of 23 sailors, mostly Indians, but also Russians, Latvians and Filipinos, were diverted to Iran.
A hostile and aggressive act
The British convened a Cobra committee (emergency meeting of senior security officials). " It is a hostile, aggressive [and] illegal act confirmed the British Minister of Defense, Penny Mordaunt, on Sky News. " The vessel was at that time in Omani waters. » The British frigate HMS Montrose which is currently in the strait was barely an hour from Stena Impero, she said, thus denying the supposed proximity of the royal frigate: ten minutes according to the press.
Iran went in a direction opposed to de-escalation
« I just spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif (I him) expressed my extreme disappointment after he assured me last Saturday, that Iran wanted to defuse the situation [and] they behaved in the opposite said Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt, via twitter, late Saturday morning. And to add: Ships need and want to be protected ».
The support of several European countries in London
Several countries (France, Germany, Netherlands) gave their full support to the UK. the Quai d'Orsay thus condemned firmly the seizure of the ship and demanded the release of the ship and crew, as of " respect the freedom of navigation ". An identical request on the European side for the two ships seized by Tehran. A second ship, the MV Mesdar, flying the flag of Liberia and British property, had been captured. But he was quickly released and resumed his journey to Saudi Arabia, his original destination.
A sensitive moment
This case comes at a time that could not be more sensitive, when the Iranian nuclear agreement is in jeopardy. Washington continues to put its pressure and Tehran, unhappy not to receive the dividends of its effort in terms of compliance with the agreement, has decided to exceed, in a limited way (for the moment), the authorized quotas of heavy water . " In an already tense situation, this development carries risks of escalation. This jeopardizes ongoing work to find a way to resolve the current tensions reacts Maja Kocijancic, the spokesperson for the European diplomatic service, on behalf of the High Representative of the EU.
(NGV)
The fate of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
Another major concern for the British is the fate of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, with dual British and Iranian nationality, arrested on April 3, 2016 and detained in Iran for more than three years. Jeremy Hunt made no secret of his concern over his transfer this week in a Revolutionary Guard hospital. We were hoping this meant she needed medical treatment, but the fact that she has been cut off from contact with her family is cause for huge concern for us. »
