FrancisMcN wrote:
maxim wrote:
But it was stupid of the British government to act like that in this very moment. It is obvious that the Iranian government would interpret that as a support of Trump.
The statement by Jeremy Hunt as Foreign Secretary to Parliament earlier this week and subsequent debate made it clear that the detention of Grace 1 at Gibraltar was triggered by US intelligence advice about the arrival of the tanker in Iberian waters, with enough warning for Gib to pass a law so that they could arrest it.
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/ ... ar#g1119.0That suggests to me considerable external pressure on the Gib government to get this done and it is hardly surprising that Iran considers that it was more about enforcing export sanctions on Iran rather than preventing oil getting to Syria.
It would be interesting to know if any other EU country has been so diligent in enforcing the sanctions on Syria?
I think it is very important to note here that the UK has offered to release the tanker if Iran gives an assurance that it will not deliver its cargo to Syria. That suggests that this is wholly about sanctions on Syria and not Iran. It is also very different from hijacking a ship in international waters and kidnapping the crew.
I do wonder why people are so willing to give Iran a free pass when they commit an act of piracy? As for pressure being applied on the Gibraltar government, they are very unlikely to pay much attention to a UK government which is so shamefully abandoning them in favour of Brexit. Once we leave the EU Spain is more likely to step up its aggressive actions towards the territory and we can see what the cuts to the navy have done to our ability to assert our sovereignty!