Iran hijacks British tanker in international waters

[Hibrandenburg]

Luckily we'll soon have a PM who has experience as Foreign Minister in dealing with the Iranians. :rolleyes:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-rebuffs-trump-claim-that-u-s-ship-downed-drone-11563526297

[Fife-Hibee]

Isn't it strange that whenever a US enemy "allegedly" does something to "provoke war" with the US, they always ALWAYS "allegedly" do something to "provoke war" with the UK as well?

Because they're just so eager to be invaded by the US and the UK at the same time.

[jonty]

Irans Revolutionary Guard are claiming it
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-iran-tanker-britain/iran-forces-say-they-seized-british-flagged-oil-tanker-in-gulf-idUKKCN1UE26Y?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social

Position last reported almost 3hrs ago
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:5388071/zoom:10

[Fife-Hibee]

History about to repeat itself for the umpteenth time.
Keep on provoking a country with a leadership they don't like.
Years of invasions, war and bloodshed.
Backed up by MSM propaganda.
Overthrowing of the leadership.
Leaving the country as an absolute hell hole.
Terrorist organization takes over.
Sell arms to the "freedom fighters".

[makaveli1875]

History about to repeat itself for the umpteenth time.
Keep on provoking a country with a leadership they don't like.
Years of invasions, war and bloodshed.
Backed up by MSM propaganda.
Overthrowing of the leadership.
Leaving the country as an absolute hell hole.
Terrorist organization takes over.
Sell arms to the "freedom fighters".

So what are you saying? Americans disguised themselves as Iranians and hijacked the tanker or did aliens do it

[Smartie]

History about to repeat itself for the umpteenth time.
Keep on provoking a country with a leadership they don't like.
Years of invasions, war and bloodshed.
Backed up by MSM propaganda.
Overthrowing of the leadership.
Leaving the country as an absolute hell hole.
Terrorist organization takes over.
Sell arms to the "freedom fighters".

Is this a Rage Against the Machine song?

[Fife-Hibee]

So what are you saying? Americans disguised themselves as Iranians and hijacked the tanker or did aliens do it

I'm not saying Iran never hijacked the tanker. It was pretty much inevitable that they were going to react sooner or later. It's exactly the kind of reaction the US have been holding out for with their endless provocations.

[Ozyhibby]

Oil price is about to go up big time. Scotland’s deficit should be gone by the weekend. [emoji6]


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[Weegreenman]

Seems to be a touch of revenge going on after Britain stopped an Iranian tanker near Gibraltar. A clean swap should solve everything you’d have thought :greengrin Iranian logic :cb

[Ozyhibby]

Seems to be a touch of revenge going on after Britain stopped an Iranian tanker near Gibraltar. A clean swap should solve everything you’d have thought :greengrin Iranian logic :cb

They’ve got two tankers now.


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[makaveli1875]

I'm not saying Iran never hijacked the tanker. It was pretty much inevitable that they were going to react sooner or later. It's exactly the kind of reaction the US have been holding out for with their endless provocations.

I just dont see America or Britain being overly keen to invade Iran. Its not Iraq or Syria, its a massive country with a massive military and plenty of Russian air defence. It would be a big risk and costly in terms of money and casualties. I know Trump is a bit of a loose cannon but I'd think the American generals would be very wary of the risks.

[lord bunberry]

We’re following a well trodden path to war. More lives will be lost to satisfy the pride of faceless politicians, utterly depressing.

[Mibbes Aye]

Seems to be a touch of revenge going on after Britain stopped an Iranian tanker near Gibraltar. A clean swap should solve everything you’d have thought :greengrin Iranian logic :cb

The Guardian seems to be reporting that both tankers diverted
dramatically from course and entered Iranian waters. I can think of three conspiracy theories already!

[Mibbes Aye]

I just dont see America or Britain being overly keen to invade Iran. Its not Iraq or Syria, its a massive country with a massive military and plenty of Russian air defence. It would be a big risk and costly in terms of money and casualties. I know Trump is a bit of a loose cannon but I'd think the American generals would be very wary of the risks.

You are right about the difference. Iran has nowhere near the sectarian differences of an Iraq and a Syria.

Iran has a lot of issues that challenge Western notions of liberal democracy but in many respects there are broad similarities, as well as legitimate reason to mistrust and resent the USA and UK.

[Fife-Hibee]

I just dont see America or Britain being overly keen to invade Iran. Its not Iraq or Syria, its a massive country with a massive military and plenty of Russian air defence. It would be a big risk and costly in terms of money and casualties. I know Trump is a bit of a loose cannon but I'd think the American generals would be very wary of the risks.

Well the American generals certainly don't seem to be taking the wary approach based on what they're saying. Their rhetoric is very much asking for war.

[Hibrandenburg]

The Guardian seems to be reporting that both tankers diverted
dramatically from course and entered Iranian waters. I can think of three conspiracy theories already!

I'm friends with a few exiled Iranian nationals. They're actually hoping that it will kick off because they're convinced it will be the spark for a counter revolution in Iran.

[stoneyburn hibs]

We’re following a well trodden path to war. More lives will be lost to satisfy the pride of faceless politicians, utterly depressing.

And if this inevitably coupled with our lovely next PM doesn't convince Scots on Independence, then I don't know what will.

[makaveli1875]

I'm friends with a few exiled Iranian nationals. They're actually hoping that it will kick off because they're convinced it will be the spark for a counter revolution in Iran.

I work with an Iranian guy. he's not exiled and does go back but he's hoping for the same. He left in 1980 his father gave him all the money he had and told him to get as far away as it would take him. Pretty grim

[Hibrandenburg]

I work with an Iranian guy. he's not exiled and does go back but he's hoping for the same. He left in 1980 his father gave him all the money he had and told him to get as far away as it would take him. Pretty grim

My friends regularly meet up with their family and friends in Turkey. Turkey is very popularly with Iranians, especially the younger generation because they can let their hair down. There's a simmering dissident majority in the country that are just waiting for the right moment to rebel.

[Fife-Hibee]

I like how this "diplomatic approach" is being dressed up as a choice by the MSM. Nothing at all to do with being utterly skint and a bare bone fleet.

[Mibbes Aye]

I'm friends with a few exiled Iranian nationals. They're actually hoping that it will kick off because they're convinced it will be the spark for a counter revolution in Iran.

While there undoubtedly is opposition to the regime from those outside Iran, one mustn’t fail to acknowledge that for the population within Iran, the sanctions and embargoes driven by the US will create a lot of anger and resentment towards America. Any government or regime with nous (and the Iranians don’t lack nous) will harness that and use it to develop a sense of soilidarity and unity.

The other thing that never seems to get covered in Western reporting is that in 1956, America and the U.K. engineered a coup in Iran that saw a democratically-elected socialist prime minister removed by force, as he was wanting to nationalise oil production at the expense of US and U.K. oil companies. The Americans installed a dictatorship in the form of the Shah.

There will be Iranians who are old enough to remember that, certainly millions upon millions whose parents and grandparents would have told them about it. This is living memory for Iranians. Can you imagine how people in say a 1950s Independent Scotland would feel if they had democratically elected a leader who was removed by global superpowers to ‘steal their oil’? Let alone how their children and grandchildren would feel now?

It is also worth acknowledging that the revolution of 1979 didn’t come from nowhere, or from a few disaffected fundamentalists. It came from a society utterly detached from the foreign-imposed plutocracy that had ruled over them, for over two decades.

Iran is extremely complex and while there are aspects to its civil codes and social codes that would be deplorable or disagreeable to many in Western nations, there is also a demonisation of the country that makes them out to be a rabid fundamentalist ‘rogue state’.

What also disappoints is the little acknowledgment in reporting or politicking here about the differences between Islamic sects and what that actually means in practice.

[Hibrandenburg]

While there undoubtedly is opposition to the regime from those outside Iran, one mustn’t fail to acknowledge that for the population within Iran, the sanctions and embargoes driven by the US will create a lot of anger and resentment towards America. Any government or regime with nous (and the Iranians don’t lack nous) will harness that and use it to develop a sense of soilidarity and unity.

The other thing that never seems to get covered in Western reporting is that in 1956, America and the U.K. engineered a coup in Iran that saw a democratically-elected socialist prime minister removed by force, as he was wanting to nationalise oil production at the expense of US and U.K. oil companies. The Americans installed a dictatorship in the form of the Shah.

There will be Iranians who are old enough to remember that, certainly millions upon millions whose parents and grandparents would have told them about it. This is living memory for Iranians. Can you imagine how people in say a 1950s Independent Scotland would feel if they had democratically elected a leader who was removed by global superpowers to ‘steal their oil’? Let alone how their children and grandchildren would feel now?

It is also worth acknowledging that the revolution of 1979 didn’t come from nowhere, or from a few disaffected fundamentalists. It came from a society utterly detached from the foreign-imposed plutocracy that had ruled over them, for over two decades.

Iran is extremely complex and while there are aspects to its civil codes and social codes that would be deplorable or disagreeable to many in Western nations, there is also a demonisation of the country that makes them out to be a rabid fundamentalist ‘rogue state’.

What also disappoints is the little acknowledgment in reporting or politicking here about the differences between Islamic sects and what that actually means in practice.

Similar story to many regions in the Middle East. The world is waking up to post colonial capitalist exploitation. We live in "interesting times".

[Johnny Clash]

While there undoubtedly is opposition to the regime from those outside Iran, one mustn’t fail to acknowledge that for the population within Iran, the sanctions and embargoes driven by the US will create a lot of anger and resentment towards America. Any government or regime with nous (and the Iranians don’t lack nous) will harness that and use it to develop a sense of soilidarity and unity.

The other thing that never seems to get covered in Western reporting is that in 1956, America and the U.K. engineered a coup in Iran that saw a democratically-elected socialist prime minister removed by force, as he was wanting to nationalise oil production at the expense of US and U.K. oil companies. The Americans installed a dictatorship in the form of the Shah.

There will be Iranians who are old enough to remember that, certainly millions upon millions whose parents and grandparents would have told them about it. This is living memory for Iranians. Can you imagine how people in say a 1950s Independent Scotland would feel if they had democratically elected a leader who was removed by global superpowers to ‘steal their oil’? Let alone how their children and grandchildren would feel now?

It is also worth acknowledging that the revolution of 1979 didn’t come from nowhere, or from a few disaffected fundamentalists. It came from a society utterly detached from the foreign-imposed plutocracy that had ruled over them, for over two decades.

Iran is extremely complex and while there are aspects to its civil codes and social codes that would be deplorable or disagreeable to many in Western nations, there is also a demonisation of the country that makes them out to be a rabid fundamentalist ‘rogue state’.

What also disappoints is the little acknowledgment in reporting or politicking here about the differences between Islamic sects and what that actually means in practice.

Very good post, especially the point of the brushing over of the 1956 coup instigated by the USA to depose a democratically elected government. American foreign policy sadly repeated many times over.

This could be another ‘test the water’ situation to gauge public support for launching into Iran by drumming up hype over an oil tanker that was built in Indonesia, owned by a Swedish company based in Cyprus and crewed by Seafarers from India, Russia and Ukraine. The link to the UK is tenuous to say the least yet headlines in the press are screaming ‘UK tanker’ detained!




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[Sylar]

Very good post, especially the point of the brushing over of the 1956 coup instigated by the USA to depose a democratically elected government. American foreign policy sadly repeated many times over.

This could be another ‘test the water’ situation to gauge public support for launching into Iran by drumming up hype over an oil tanker that was built in Indonesia, owned by a Swedish company based in Cyprus and crewed by Seafarers from India, Russia and Ukraine. The link to the UK is tenuous to say the least yet headlines in the press are screaming ‘UK tanker’ detained!




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Perhaps because the two tankers are operated by companies based in Clydebank and Glasgow...?

[Johnny Clash]

Perhaps because the two tankers are operated by companies based in Clydebank and Glasgow...?

So let me get this right? We are sabre rattling with Iran over a Swedish owned tanker that’s operating under a ‘Flag of Convenience’ (FOC) by a UK company who refuse to employ UK ratings; instead exploiting seafarers from across the globe on £1.75 an hour.


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[southsider]

Johnson and his ilk can sit behind their desks and drum up the war resottic as, more elloquantly put by Craig and Charlie, it is not THEiR sons and daughters who will have to put their lives on the line for this folly.

[Sylar]

So let me get this right? We are sabre rattling with Iran over a Swedish owned tanker that’s operating under a ‘Flag of Convenience’ (FOC) by a UK company who refuse to employ UK ratings; instead exploiting seafarers from across the globe on £1.75 an hour.


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I'm making no attempt to justify the entire scenario. Merely pointing out that the narrative of British interest in the story isn't quite so far fetched as you perhaps claimed in your OP.

[Fife-Hibee]

https://www.globalresearch.ca/we-re-going-to-take-out-7-countries-in-5-years-iraq-syria-lebanon-libya-somalia-sudan-iran/5166?fbclid=IwAR1Q2L9GVin0seE96rWl9hyy-_VeUsLvf-6Wm7AXJyUmKl7jsgej-4HZ6Kg

[southsider]

The irony is unbelievable. Hunt wants a European led task force to help protect shipping but 10 minutes ago was demanding the UK quit Europe. You could not make it up.

[MrRobot]

Is this a Rage Against the Machine song?

:greengrin

[Bristolhibby]

So let me get this right? We are sabre rattling with Iran over a Swedish owned tanker that’s operating under a ‘Flag of Convenience’ (FOC) by a UK company who refuse to employ UK ratings; instead exploiting seafarers from across the globe on £1.75 an hour.


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It’s flying a British Flag. It’s our problem. Doesn’t matter who owns it or crews it.

https://www.ukshipregister.co.uk/about-us/uk-flag-advantages/

J

[Johnny Clash]

It’s flying a British Flag. It’s our problem. Doesn’t matter who owns it or crews it.

https://www.ukshipregister.co.uk/about-us/uk-flag-advantages/

J

Yes - sadly FOCs allow exploitative ship owners to engage in ‘social dumping’. I’m not saying Iran was right seizing the Swedish ship that was flying a uk flag but neither do I think it’s right paying any workers £1.75 an hour on ‘3 months on 2 - weeks off’ rotas. Why was the Swedish ship not flying the Swedish flag? Sweden has a strong code and at the forefront of Maritime safety. Swedish registered ships also entitle employees working on those ships to seafarers’ income, which isn’t £1.75 an hour!!!

Seems the owners were well aware of the cost cutting (as made clear in that link you just posted) that a uk flag would offer. Should be one rate for the job regardless of your nationality.




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[marinello59]

Yes - sadly FOCs allow exploitative ship owners to engage in ‘social dumping’. I’m not saying Iran was right seizing the Swedish ship that was flying a uk flag but neither do I think it’s right paying any workers £1.75 an hour on ‘3 months on 2 - weeks off’ rotas. Why was the Swedish ship not flying the Swedish flag? Sweden has a strong code and at the forefront of Maritime safety. Swedish registered ships also entitle employees working on those ships to seafarers’ income, which isn’t £1.75 an hour!!!

Seems the owners were well aware of the cost cutting (as made clear in that link you just posted) that a uk flag would offer. Should be one rate for the job regardless of your nationality.




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When I was at sea many of us refused to sail under a flag of convenience. Seeing the Red Ensign become one itself is pretty sad.

[StevieC]

They’ve got two tankers now.

Is it more of a game of Top Trumps then?
.. rather than a diplomatic situation?

[GORDONSMITH7]

Yes - sadly FOCs allow exploitative ship owners to engage in ‘social dumping’. I’m not saying Iran was right seizing the Swedish ship that was flying a uk flag but neither do I think it’s right paying any workers £1.75 an hour on ‘3 months on 2 - weeks off’ rotas. Why was the Swedish ship not flying the Swedish flag? Sweden has a strong code and at the forefront of Maritime safety. Swedish registered ships also entitle employees working on those ships to seafarers’ income, which isn’t £1.75 an hour!!!

Seems the owners were well aware of the cost cutting (as made clear in that link you just posted) that a uk flag would offer. Should be one rate for the job regardless of your nationality.




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Spot on Johnny. That is the way I read it. My auld man, 20 years dead now was in the Merchant Navy sailing from Leith, in incalculable more dangerous times for a seafairer, during the Second World war. He despise the, Liberian flag and pitiful conditions stuff that evolved decades later.
I do not know which I am prouder off his odds against survival in the Arctic Convoy/ Sea of Japan or being so Hibs daft that he insisted on calling me in 1954 after his hero. No not Churchill, Montgomery et al. but Gordon Smith. Thanks Dad.

BIG G

[marinello59]

Spot on Johnny. That is the way I read it. My auld man, 20 years dead now was in the Merchant Navy sailing from Leith, in incalculable more dangerous times for a seafairer, during the Second World war. He despise the, Liberian flag and pitiful conditions stuff that evolved decades later.
I do not know which I am prouder off his odds against survival in the Arctic Convoy/ Sea of Japan or being so Hibs daft that he insisted on calling me in 1954 after his hero. No not Churchill, Montgomery et al. but Gordon Smith. Thanks Dad.

BIG G

Ben Line by any chance?