The seizure of two million barrels of Iranian crude oil by
British commandoes is a blatant act of piracy aimed at provoking Iran into war.
Also, confiscation of the supertanker in Britain’s Mediterranean territory of
Gibraltar seems aimed at sinking the last chances for the international nuclear
accord being upheld.
Iran has already warned it
will suspend parts of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) by
increasing stockpiles of enriched uranium, particularly because Tehran has
rebuked the European Union for not doing enough to implement the 2015 accord
and normalize trade with Iran, circumventing US sanctions.
Following the G20 summit in
Japan at the end of last month, the Europeans appeared to stiffen their resolve
to finally set up a trading mechanism with Iran (known as Instex) which would
avoid US sanctions.
The
timing of the latest capture of Iranian crude oil at sea by British special
forces – and the indication they were colluding with American intelligence –
will serve to sabotage any trust in Tehran that the Europeans can deliver on
promises, thereby prompting Iran to crash out of the nuclear accord.
Britain claims that its Royal Marines
commandeered the supertanker ferrying the Iranian-owned cargo in order to
enforce EU sanctions on Syria. Those EU sanctions have been in place since 2014
based on tenuous claims that the Syrian government is repressing its people
with war (a war started covertly by US and NATO-backed proxies.)
In any case, the 330-meter
Grace 1 vessel, loaded with crude oil worth an estimated $120 million, was
boarded Thursday early morning under cover of darkness by dozens of British
commandoes from helicopters and speed boats while it was transiting the
Gibraltar Strait, the western opening of the Mediterranean Sea.
The
crew were mainly Indian and Pakistani seamen, and the ship is reportedly
Panamanian-flagged and owned by a Singaporean company. But the lucrative cargo
is Iran’s. Iran has responded furiously, denouncing the British action as
“piracy”. A former chief of the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps urged retaliation
by confiscating a British vessel.
There is a strong sense that
this tit-for-tat escalation is exactly what the Americans and British are
trying to orchestrate so as to create a pretext for armed conflict with Iran.
Russia
quickly condemned the
British seizure of the Iranian oil tanker as a reckless provocation to
deliberately inflame tensions, carried out in cahoots with Washington.
John
Bolton, President Trump’s hawkish national security advisor, gloated that the
British operation was “excellent news”. Trump himself warned that Iran should
be “very, very careful” about how it responds to the incident. That
anticipatory reaction suggests the event was a planned provocation.
It follows several previous
incidents of apparent false-flag attacks on oil tankers near the Persian Gulf
which have been blamed on Iran by Bolton and other US officials. At the end of
last month, a US spy drone was shot down by Iran after it breached the
country’s territory. That incident nearly launched an American air strike “in
response” which was cancelled by Trump at the last minute.
Now the provocation has taken
it up a notch with the actual seizure of Iranian property and a badly needed
source of export revenue for the sanctioned country.
The British government claims
that the seizure of Iranian oil was authorized by the Gibraltar authorities.
London says its Royal Marines were dispatched as back up for Gibraltar police
to apprehend the tanker in order to enforce EU sanctions on Syria, where the
oil was reportedly destined for.
The British version stretches
credulity. The planning of such a risky operation would have had to require
lengthy logistics. It would not have been something the tiny territory of
Gibraltar could initiate. Moreover, Spain’s government, which is in historic
dispute with Britain over ownership of Gibraltar, has claimed that Britain was
acting on US intelligence.
If Iran goes ahead and
confiscates a British vessel in retaliation, then the escalation game goes into
heightened danger levels. Such a move could provide the war cause that
anti-Iran hawks want.
The
British are showing themselves to be the loyal warmongering accomplice that
they are for Washington. London is also showing its notorious perfidy and black
art of deception. After all, Britain is supposed to be supporting the
international nuclear accord along with other European powers.
The European Union executive in Brussels does not appear to have
been involved or notified of the British operation to interdict the Iranian
crude oil. If the action was allegedly to enforce EU sanctions against Syria, why
wasn’t Brussels in the loop?
It seems that the Americans
and British carried out the seizure operation not for the purpose of enforcing
EU sanctions against Syria per se, but rather to simply antagonize Iran. In
addition, the putative responsibility of EU sanctions, as claimed by the
British and Americans, will have the effect of demolishing any confidence in
Tehran that the Europeans can act independently from Washington to uphold the
nuclear deal.
Iran will have little choice
other than to walk away from the nuclear treaty. The Americans can then
self-justify ratcheting up secondary sanctions to cut off all global exports of
Iranian oil. Choking off Iran’s lifeline exports to “zero” is what the Trump
administration has repeatedly bragged about.
It’s hard to see how this
relentless, criminal provocation of Iran will not lead to war.
The
views of individual contributors do not necessarily represent those of the
Strategic Culture Foundation.
Copyright © 2019 Strategic Culture Foundation | Republishing is welcomed
with reference to Strategic Culture online journal www.strategic-culture.org.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/07/no_author/piracy-on-high-seas-us-and-british-aim-to-sink-iran-nuclear-deal/
