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The tanker war in the Persian Gulf is back, and this time directly between the US and Iran

In the 1980s there was the first tanker war, in which Iran and Iraq, at war with each other, tried to block the counterpart's oil traffic in the Persian Gulf, a move which then also heavily involved the USA. Now a series of incidents, always in the same area, directly involve Iran and the USA.

The Iranian navy has released new footage showing elite commandos seizing a foreign vessel in the Gulf of Oman two days ago. The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Advantage Sweet was carrying Kuwaiti oil to Houston under Chevron, but en route was boarded by Iranian troops who rappeled onto the ship's deck from a helicopter, the footage shows.

“The Advantage Sweet was seized by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy while transiting international waters in the Gulf of Oman,” the US Navy said Thursday.

It was later revealed that the Iranian assault on the ship was in retaliation for the US seizure of Iranian oil bound for China days earlier. “US authorities in recent days ordered an Iranian crude tanker to reroute to the United States, in a move officials believe was the trigger for Iran's decision to capture a US-bound tanker Thursday ,” the FT reported on Friday.

"Three people briefed on the situation said the United States has intervened to recall a ship loaded with Iranian crude, originally destined for China, as Washington seeks to step up enforcement of sanctions against Tehran."

Other footage broadcast by Iranian state media:

Meanwhile, Iran boasts that it has stepped up joint maritime exercises with its most powerful military partners, China and Russia…

Iran welcomes the expansion of joint military exercises with China and believes such exercises will help defuse the threat posed to both nations by US-led unilateralism, Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani said on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Defense Ministers Meeting held in New Delhi, India on 28-29 April.

"The regional and international situation is changing, and as a result, expanding relations between Iran and China has become more important than in the past ," Ashtiani said, speaking with his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu on Saturday.

In the current international situation, Tehran feels strong and authorized to act against its enemies, first and foremost, the USA, especially with Saudi Arabia far from US positions. These can lay the foundations for a dangerous escalation between the two powers: the USA cannot afford to be provoked in this way, especially with the elections approaching. We'll see if and how Biden reacts.


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The article The tanker war in the Persian Gulf is back, and this time directly between the USA and Iran comes from Scenari Economici .


This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/torna-la-guerra-delle-petroliere-nel-golfo-persico-e-questa-volta-direttamente-fra-usa-e-iran/ on Sun, 30 Apr 2023 06:00:48 +0000.