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MIDDLE EAST By MICHAEL WILNER \ 04/29/2015 01:14 After gunshots and a distress call, Iran 'confiscates' ship in Gulf Pentagon: No US citizens aboard Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship at which Iran fired shots. Iranian navy ship.. (photo credit:REUTERS) Share on Facebook Share on Twitter WASHINGTON – Iranian naval forces shot at, boarded and confiscated a commercial vessel transiting the Straits of Hormuz on Tuesday. The MV Maersk Tigris, a 65,000-ton container ship, was flying a Marshall Islands flag and operated by Rickmers Shipmanagement, a Singaporean company. The ship departed from the Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah and was bound for the United Arab Emirates. According to Iranian staterun media, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized the ship under court order for “legal reasons,” which the Pentagon called “provocative” several hours later. The Maersk Tigris initially ignored Iranian patrol boats that ordered it deeper into Iranian territorial waters, but complied after the vessels fired several warning shots, US Col. Steve Warren said. US forces in the region responded to its distress calls by sending the USS Farragut, a destroyer, to monitor the situation along with reconnaissance aircraft. The ship, which is currently in Iranian custody, is not carrying any US citizens, Warren added. Iranian media claimed the ship was American, sailing under a false flag, while noting that its 34 crew members were mostly European. The US has a compact with the Marshall Islands, formally known as the Compact of Free Association, which allows the US to use Marshall Islands land for military purposes in exchange for a US commitment to the defense of its assets. The State Department said the ship was traversing an “internationally recognized maritime route,” though it was not immediately clear if that route was in international or Iranian waters. The Obama administration has had several close-calls with Iran at sea. The US last publicly threatened to board and inspect ships carrying Iranian arms in 2014, when a vessel under a Panama flag was sailing toward Gaza. Israel volunteered to board the ship instead, and arrested its crew. In 2011 and 2012, US President Barack Obama also sent two aircraft carriers through the Straits of Hormuz and into the Arabian Sea in response to threats from Tehran to close the strait, one of the most important waterways in the world for the flow of oil. Some 17 million barrels per day – about 30 percent of all seaborne-traded oil – passed through the Straits of Hormuz in 2013, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Just last week, the president directed the USS Theodore Roosevelt to the Gulf of Aden to “ensure the freedom of navigation” through its strait, US officials said, as Iranian ships approached Yemen’s shores. Earlier in the day, US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in New York to continue negotiations toward a comprehensive agreement on Iran’s nuclear work. The two utilized Zarif’s old residence, the residence of the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, for the meeting, marking the first time a US statesman has entered an Iranian facility since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. “We are, in fact, closer than ever to the good, comprehensive deal that we have been seeking, and if we can get there, the entire world will be safer,” Kerry said on Tuesday to a conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which brought both Kerry and Zarif to New York. Asked whether the US believed Iran’s actions on the Maersk Tigris were related to the nuclear talks, a State Department spokesman declined to speculate. The US is committed to ensuring freedom of navigation in the strait, he added. Reuters contributed to this report. http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Report-Iran-opens-fire-at-and-detains-US-cargo-ship-in-Gulf-399456 I think the Price of oil may just go up! World | Tue Apr 28, 2015 6:43pm EDTRelated: WORLD U.S. says Iranian forces fire on and board cargo ship in GulfDUBAI/WASHINGTON | BY NOAH BROWNING AND DAVID ALEXANDER (Reuters) - Iranian forces boarded a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf on Tuesday after patrol boats fired warning shots across its bow and ordered it deeper into Iranian waters, the Pentagon said. U.S. planes and a destroyer were monitoring the situation after the vessel, the MV Maersk Tigris, made a distress call in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important oil shipping channels. Iran's Tasnim news agency quoted an unidentified source who sought to play down the incident, saying it was a civil matter with no military or political dimension. But the Pentagon described it as an apparent provocation. The incident came as the United States and five other global powers aim to secure a final nuclear deal with Iran by the end of June. Under the accord Tehran, which denies seeking to build nuclear weapons, would win sanctions relief in return for slashing the number of its uranium enrichment centrifuges and accepting intrusive international inspections. Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television earlier said an Iranian force fired on and seized a U.S. cargo ship with 34 U.S. sailors on board, and directed it to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. But the Pentagon spokesman said there were no U.S. citizens on board the ship. The company managing the vessel told a Danish news channel there were 24 crew members, mostly from eastern Europe and Asia. Reuters tracking data showed the Maersk Tigris, a 65,000-tonne container ship, off the Iranian coast between the islands of Qeshm and Hormuz. It had been listed as sailing from the Saudi port of Jeddah, bound for the United Arab Emirates port of Jebel Ali. RELATED COVERAGE› Iranian Revolutionary Guards seize cargo ship in Gulf › Maersk Tigris ship management says concerned for 24 crew after Iran fires shots › Iranian navy seized ship under court order: Fars news agency › Iran interception of cargo vessel appears 'provocative': Pentagon COURT ORDER Iran's Fars news agency said the ship was seized at the request of Iran's ports authority under a court order. But a spokesman for the Singapore-based company that manages the vessel, which usually includes hiring the crew, Rickmers Shipmanagement, said he did not know why Iran had taken action. Spokesman Cor Radings confirmed to Danish TV2 news channel that Iranian forces fired warning shots at the container ship and boarded it, and said the company was concerned for the crew. The vessel had been following a normal commercial route between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, he said. A U.S. government official said the ship was intercepted by the Naval force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) at 0905 GMT. Another U.S. official said that when the warning shots were fired, the Maersk Tigris issued a distress call which was received by U.S. forces operating in the region. The closest U.S. warship was more than 60 miles away, he said, and the U.S. military instructed destroyer USS Farragut to head towards the cargo ship, which was passing through the Strait of Hormuz at the time. Some 17 million barrels per day (bpd), or about 30 percent of all seaborne-traded oil, passed through the channel in 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Iran has in the past sometimes threatened to block the strait to advance its opposition to sanctions imposed over its nuclear program. The channel is a narrow strip of water separating Oman and Iran. It connects the biggest Gulf oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. At its narrowest point, the strait is 33 km (21 miles) across and consists of 2-mile wide navigable channels for inbound and outbound shipping and a 2-mile-wide buffer zone. (Additional reporting by Phil Stewart, Leslie Wroughton and Mark Hosenball in Washington,Sabina Zawadzki in Copenhagen, Jonathan Saul in London, Yara Bayoumy in Cairo and Sam Wilkin in Dubai; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Janet Lawrence) http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/28/us-iran-usa-ship-idUSKBN0NJ1SB20150428