After gunshots and a distress call, Iran 'confiscates' ship in Gulf

Butifldrm · April 29, 2015

MIDDLE EAST

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)

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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 EDT

Related: WORLD

U.S. says Iranian forces fire on and board cargo ship in Gulf

DUBAI/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

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

Edited April 29, 2015 by Butifldrm

Butifldrm · April 29, 2015

U.S. dispatches destroyer after Iran boards commercial ship

The USS Farragut, seen here departing its home port at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Fla., responded to a distress call from a vessel boarded by Iranian forces. (Sean P. La Marr/U.S. Navy)

By Missy Ryan and William Branigin April 28 at 6:28 PM

The U.S. military has dispatched a destroyer in pursuit of a commercial ship that was fired upon and then boarded by Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The Maersk Tigris, a Marshall Islands-flagged container ship, was intercepted by patrol ships from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy around 4 a.m. Eastern time, according to Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. No U.S. citizens were believed to be among the more than 30 crew members aboard the vessel.

After the ship refused to comply with an Iranian order to steam further into Iran’s territorial waters, one of the Iranian patrol vessels fired across the Tigris’s bridge, Warren said.

The Tigris, which had been heading toward the Persian Gulf when it was intercepted, then complied with the Iranian ships’ order, proceeding to an area near Larak Island, in the northern edge of the strait off Iran’s coast.

According to Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency, the Maersk Tigris was seized at the request of the Iranian Ports and Maritime Organization. The news agency quoted an unidentified source as “indicating that the IPMO had monetary differences with the ship owner.”

Fars said vessels of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy were taking the ship to the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf. Iran’s state-run Press TV news outlet said the ship was boarded after it “reportedly trespassed on Iranian waters.”

Neither news outlet elaborated on the dispute that allegedly triggered the seizure.

Amy Hauser, general manager of marketing for Maersk Line Ltd., a U.S. company based in Norfolk, said the 52,600-ton Maersk Tigris is owned and operated by Singapore-based Rickmers Ship Management, which is part of the Rickmers Group based in Hamburg, Germany. She said that it was chartered to Maersk Line but that she had no information on what the ship was carrying or the nationalities of the crew members.

“We don’t crew it,” Hauser said. She said Maersk Line “moves cargo for the U.S. government and military.”

Hauser said she could not shed any light on the financial dispute being reported by Iranian media.

Maersk Line is part of the Maersk Group, a Danish conglomerate that has businesses active in the oil and gas and drilling industries, among others, in addition to shipping.

According to a vessel-tracking Web site, the Maersk Tigris was en route to Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates. Its previous port was listed as Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, meaning that it was heading into the Persian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman after making its way around the Arabian Peninsula from the Red Sea.

Commercial ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, which separates the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, transit Iranian waters but are permitted to do so as long as they do not threaten Iranian interests, U.S. officials said. A State Department official said that under a bilateral compact the United States has responsibility for the security of the Marshall Islands, including the defense of ships flying the tiny Pacific nation’s flag.

The U.S. military, after receiving a distress call from the Tigris, sent surveillance aircraft to monitor the situation and ordered the destroyer USS Farragut to head toward the Maersk Tigris. The Farragut was in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday evening.

“At first appearance, it does seem to be provocative behavior, but again we don’t have all the facts yet,” Warren said.

It was not immediately clear whether the Farragut, which is now in international waters, would enter Iranian waters.

The incident comes days after U.S. officials sought to de-escalate naval tensions that arose with Iran after the U.S. military sent an aircraft carrier off the coast of Yemen. U.S. officials suspect that Iran has been sending weapons and supplies to Yemen to aid Houthi rebels who are fighting a U.S.-backed coalition of Arab nations.

“The open question is, what’s the intent?” said a defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation.

A U.S. Navy official noted that in an incident Friday, the U.S.-flagged container ship Maersk Kensington was approached by four Iranian patrol craft while on an internationally recognized shipping route in the southern Persian Gulf, off the coast of Oman. The Iranian ships circled the Kensington and followed it for a time but departed without firing any shots.

The incidents are alarming to U.S. officials, the Navy official said. The Kensington was in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday after stopping in Mumbai, India, over the weekend, according to MarineTraffic, a Web site that tracks ship movements.

Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-dispatches-destroyer-after-iran-boards-commercial-ship/2015/04/28/56ef48c2-edc6-11e4-a55f-38924fca94f9_story.html

TBomb · April 29, 2015

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/28/politics/iran-seizes-commercial-ship-u-s-official-says-no-americans-on-board/ there's a video at this link

First on CNN: U.S.-flagged ship intercepted by Iranian patrol
By Barbara Starr, Jim Sciutto and Jamie Crawford, CNN
Updated 5:31 PM ET, Tue April 28, 2015
Reports: Iranian forces seize cargo ship

Reports: Iranian forces seize cargo ship 01:45
Washington (CNN)A U.S.-flagged ship was recently intercepted by an Iran Revolutionary Guard naval patrol, the U.S. Navy revealed to CNN Tuesday.

The incident occurred on Friday when four Iranian naval vessels surrounded the U.S.-flagged Maersk Kensington in the Strait of Hormuz.

The episode came ahead of an encounter Tuesday in which Iran Revolutionary Guard patrol boats fired shots at a commercial cargo ship and then intercepted the vessel, the Marshall Islands-flagged M/V Maersk Tigris, which was also crossing the Strait of Hormuz.

A senior U.S. military official told CNN that "the Iranians encircled the Kensington and followed the ship on its course for a period of time before withdrawing and breaking away." After that, the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet issued a notice to mariners about the incident.

READ: Obama administration sends mixed messages on Iranian ships

Referring to Tuesday's incident, Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said it was "inappropriate" for the Iranians to fire the warning shots.

The U.S. Navy has dispatched one maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft to observe and monitor the situation, Warren told reporters.

Despite reports in some media, there are no Americans on board, according to a U.S. official.

According to the shipping company, which is in contact with the U.S. military, on Tuesday evening the vessel was being escorted towards Bandar Abbas on the coast of Iran by Iranian patrol boats. The Pentagon thinks about 30 individuals are on board.

At this point, no U.S. military action is expected on the ship that was seized Tuesday aside from monitoring the situation. The U.S. believes that Iranians will "send the ship on its way," the senior official said.

State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke noted Tuesday afternoon that he U.S. has a security compact with the Marshall Islands on defense issues.

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But he added that there hasn't been a specific request for assistance from the Marshall Islands and said it was premature to say whether this could require the use of force.

He did state, however, that "it's a key concern of the United States to ensure that sea lanes in the region remain open and safe."

In Tuesday's incident, the Marshall Islands-flagged vessel was transiting the Strait into the Persian Gulf on an internationally recognized maritime route when the Iranian military contacted the vessel and directed the ship master to "divert further into Iranian waters," according to Warren.

"The master was contacted and directed to proceed further into Iranian territorial waters. He declined and one of the IRGCN craft fired shots across the bridge of the Maersk Tigris," said Warren, referring to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. "The master complied with the Iranian demand and proceeded into Iranian waters in the vicinity of Larak Island."

After the shots were fired, the Tigris issued a distress call that was picked up by U.S. forces in the area, and the USS Farragut was ordered to head towards the incident. The closest U.S. warship was 60 miles away.

READ: U.S. aircraft carrier enters Persian Gulf as Iranian convoy moves

"We have been in communication with U.S. shipping industry representatives with regards to how their vessels should respond to threatening encounters with foreign naval forces and how to contact us, " the U.S. official said, declining to provide the specific advice being given. In the incident Friday, no shots were fired.

The senior official pointed out that that historically, Iran Revolutionary Guard naval forces have been more likely to be engaged in hostile contact with the shipping and military vessels in the region than the regular Iranian navy. Contact with regular Iranian naval forces is frequent and "professional," the official said.

Even though the Strait of Hormuz is in Iranian territorial waters, "innocent passage" is applied -- ships are authorized to pass through the body of water assuming they abide by all the rules of the sea -- because it is an internationally recognized shipping lane.

Warren said it was "to be determined" what the USS Farragut will do when it reached the vicinity of the incident.

The M/V Maersk Tigris was seized at the request of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization, Iran's semi-official news agency FARS is reporting, citing informed sources. The Marshall Islands-flagged vessel was seized after a relevant court order was issued, according to the source, indicating that the IPMO had monetary differences with the ship owner.

Maersk LInes issued a statement Tuesday that the company's "paramount concern is the safety and well-being of the crew."

U.S. says Iranian forces fire on and board cargo ship in Gulf
DUBAI/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.