Breaking: Iran Hijacks Ship, Possibly Others

Iran

Forces backed by Iran have reportedly “seized an oil tanker in the Gulf off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.” Reuters lists “three maritime security sources” to back up the news of a British maritime trade agency. They claim a “potential hijack” in the area on Tuesday, August 3. The Ayatollah is apparently convinced that he can get away with anything. He knows that Joe Biden won’t lift a finger to stop him.

Iran at it again

As expected, Iran denies everything. Senior armed forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi “denounced reports of maritime incidents and hijacking in the Gulf area,” calling it “a kind of psychological warfare” which sets the stage “for new bouts of adventurism.”Some would say that’s “Douglas Adams diplomacy.”

Retribution is, “I’m going to kill you because you killed my brother.” If you want to make the first move it’s called anticipation. “I’m going to kill you because I killed your brother.” Then there is diplomacy. “I’m going to kill my brother and then kill you on the pretext that your brother did it.”

Reuters notes that two of their sources “identified the seized vessel as the Panama-flagged asphalt/bitumen tanker Asphalt Princess” as the one hijacked by Iran proxy forces. The vessel was operating “in an area in the Arabian Sea leading to the Strait of Hormuz.”

That bottleneck is “the conduit for about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil exports.” Joe Biden is terrified of the Ayatollah. The Ministry of State “said it was concerned and looking into reports of a maritime incident in the Gulf of Oman, but that it was too early to offer a judgment.”

Boris Johnson, known as the British version of Donald Trump, is on it. “Britain’s foreign ministry was ‘urgently investigating’ an incident on a vessel off the UAE coast.” They show a lot more energy and urgency than Antony Blinken did.

U.S. officials, will only speak “on the condition of anonymity” but they assure the public that “the United States military was expected to reposition at least one vessel in the general vicinity of the Asphalt Princess to keep a closer eye.” They don’t want to get too close and annoy Iran though. The American plan is to “monitor the situation rather than to make any imminent military moves.”

The Asphalt Princess.

Other ships affected

In addition to the unconfirmed reports that “the Asphalt Princess had been hijacked,” which quoted British sources to say they were “working on the assumption Iranian military or proxies boarded the vessel.” They are sure Tehran is responsible just can’t prove it this very moment. The Ayatollah has been getting bolder lately. Officials are also nervous that “at least five ships in the sea between the UAE and Iran updated their AIS tracking status to “Not Under Command.”

At least that’s what showed up on the computer screens at Refinitiv ship tracking data. Things like that make ship owners and government leaders very nervous. “Such a status generally indicates a ship is unable to maneuver due to exceptional circumstances.”

Iran acts like everything is normal. The “movement of commercial vessels is quite normal and no official naval sources or countries in the Persian Gulf have reported any incidents.”

The theocracy’s foreign minister “said the reports of maritime incidents were ‘suspicious’ and warned against any effort to create a ‘false atmosphere’ against Tehran.” That’s a lot like the way China tried to blame the U.S. for planting COVID in Wuhan.

Joe Biden is still trying to figure out how to respond to last week’s drone strike attack on the Mercer Street, “a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned petroleum product tanker managed by Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime.”

Everyone admits that tensions have flared “in Gulf waters and between Iran and Israel since 2018, when then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal.” The Ayatollah thinks he can get those pallets of cash flowing again this way.