U.S. fears Iran seized UAE-based tanker in Strait of Hormuz

[Dem Dean]

Source: CBC News

Jul 16, 2019 12:30 PM ET

A small oil tanker from the United Arab Emirates travelling through the Strait of Hormuz entered Iranian waters and turned off its tracker two days ago, leading the U.S. to suspect Iran seized the vessel amid heightened tensions in the region, an American defence official said Tuesday.

Iran offered no immediate comment on what happened to the Panamanian-flagged oil tanker Riah late Saturday night, though an Emirati official acknowledged the vessel sent out no distress call. Oil tankers previously have been targetted in the wider region amid tensions between the U.S. and Iran over its unravelling nuclear deal with world powers.

The concern about the Riah comes as Iran continues its own high-pressure campaign over its nuclear program after U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord over a year ago.

Recently, Iran has inched its uranium production and enrichment over the limits of its 2015 nuclear deal, trying to put more pressure on Europe to offer it better terms and allow it to sell its crude oil abroad.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/uae-tanker-missing-in-iranian-waters-1.5213490

---

Somewhere, John Bolton is wanking.

[Thomas Hurt]

1. do unto others so they can do the same to you, isn't that how it works.

Iran says: "Wanna trade?"

[CincyDem]

2. "Somewhere, John Bolton is..."

A word picture that will take days if not weeks to wash out of my brain. Posts like that really should have a NSFW tag. lol

[Dem Dean]

6. I was gonna use cruder language

But I decided to spare the sensibilities of more refined DUers. ("Refined" is a word that has never been applied to me!) Maybe I should have said "masturbating," but let's face it: there is NO way to talk about Bolton that doesn't induce nausea!

[IggleDuer]

3. The Trumpers don't "fear" that the tanker was seized ...

... they want it.

[Dem Dean]

7. Yep

That's why Bolton and the other chickenhawks all have boners!

[Applegate]

4. We had a deal with Iran and Trump blew it up.

This is all on Trump.

[IcyPeas]

5. oil again

oil
oil
oil
oil

we really need to get off this shit.

[iamthebandfanman]

8. Good.

Glad they did, to be honest.

One of the good points of Obamas terms was trying to reach out to Iran and find some common ground.. and i was truly optimistic by their response to such a suggestion.

Then dip shit gets into office.. starts threatening them and trying to provoke them.. well , he did. when a country gives your arch enemy more weapons.. you would expect them to be pissed.

we have got to stop having favoritism in the middle east.

[AtheistCrusader]

9. Sounds like the UAE's problem.

[Lokilooney]

10. So does the UAE fear that Iran seized the tanker?

Or just the US? I mean it is their tanker after all...

[Applegate]

11. Reuters update: "Iran says it came to help of disabled foreign oil tanker in the Gulf"

Iran says it came to help of disabled foreign oil tanker in the Gulf

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian navy vessels came to the assistance of a disabled foreign oil tanker in the Gulf that needed repairs, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as saying on Tuesday by the semi-official news agency ISNA.

“(Spokesman) Abbas Mousavi said... that an international oil tanker was in trouble due to a technical fault in the Persian Gulf... After receiving a request for assistance, Iranian forces approached it and used a tugboat to pull it towards Iranian waters for the necessary repairs to be carried out,” ISNA said.

Mousavi did not name the tanker and said more information would be released later.

A CNN reporter tweeted earlier that U.S. intelligence increasingly believed that the UAE tanker MT Riah had been forced into Iranian waters by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards naval forces. But the reporter added that other Gulf sources said it had simply broken down and may have been towed by Iranian vessels.

Iran has called on Britain to release immediately an Iranian oil tanker that was seized by British Royal Marines earlier in July on suspicion it was breaking European sanctions by taking oil to Syria.

<snip>

[Crowman2009]

12. Any blurry-as-fuck pictures yet?