Posted on 07/09/2019 7:06:01 AM PDT by Enlightened1
Iran is planning to charge foreign ships a toll in exchange for "protection" across the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade route and a flashpoint in the escalating dispute between the United States and the Islamic Republic.
A member of the Iranian Parliament's presidium said foreign commercial entities should compensate Iran as "the true provider of security in the region and international waters," according to the state-run Tasnim News Agency. Amirhossein Qazizadeh Hashemi claimed ships enter Iranian waters on their way through the strait and should therefore pay a toll.
That assertion doesn't jibe with clearly defined international agreements, former Navy officer Thomas Callender says.
"To be trying to charge essentially tax to pass through this is a form of extortion."
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow, 21-mile waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and greater Arabian Sea. About 18.5 million barrels of oil travel through the strait each day, accounting for 30% of the world's sea-traded oil. The waterway is considered crucial to global trade, but with a shipping lane only three miles long, it is also extremely vulnerable.
"It's kind of like the old movies where you'd see the mafia come in and bang up someone's store and say, 'Look, you want protection from someone banging up your store, you have to pay us,'" Callender said. "It's like an Iranian mafia requesting protection money from the commercial shipping industry and oil companies through the gulf."
The Iranian economy relies heavily on the oil trade, making it a ripe target for U.S. and international sanctions. The Trump administration has focused on Iranian oil as part of its maximum pressure campaign against the regime and warned allies to steer clear of doing business with Tehran.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Khomeini Through Way”? Now what’ll that asshole think of next? Has anybody got a dime? Somebody’s gotta go back and get a shitload of dimes!
collecting under banking sanctions might be a problem
Wonder if Senator War Profiteer (Di Fi) will arrange for Bechtel Corp to get the contract to build the toll booth.
Call it what it is, piracy. This is the sort of thing that drove Thomas Jefferson to attack the Barbary pirates.
You left off the “William J.” otherwise a most perfect post.
Hey...... the Bechtel group is solidly American. Th profess other wise verges on bigotry
Let’s charge Iran a “flotation fee” to ensure that none of their ships are sunk somewhere by somebody.
Looks like the President will get another chance to bomb Iran’s navy and perhaps its air force.
“It’s kind of like the old movies where you’d see the mafia come in and bang up someone’s store and say, ‘Look, you want protection from someone banging up your store, you have to pay us,’” Callender said. “It’s like an Iranian mafia requesting protection money from the commercial shipping industry and oil companies through the gulf.”
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That’s a nice tanker you got there. It would be a shame if something happened to it.
Nice toll booth you have there. Pity something should happen to it.
should have destroyed the Iranian navy a month ago when they sank the first three oil tankers.
The Strait of Hormuz is not “open seas” by any definition. At its narrowest point it is only 21 miles wide, so that part of the Strait lies entirely in the 12-mile territorial waters of either Iran or the United Arab Emirates. The article points out that ships are permitted free passage through the Strait under international agreements, but what it fails to mention is that Iran is not a signatory to those agreements. Interestingly, the U.S. IS a signatory to the applicable treaties ... but since the Senate never ratified them they aren’t even legally binding under U.S. law.
I notice the British navy is escorting tankers through the Strait today.
Sounds like the mob protection racket in New Yawk.
Call it what it is, piracy. This is the sort of thing that drove Thomas Jefferson to attack the Barbary pirates.
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Playing into Trumps hands. Gives US a reason to militarily insure the shipping lanes for rest of the world, possibly. Blockade Iran, possibly. Or simply attack any Iranian military vessel that impedes commercial shipping, possibly. The possibilities are endless. Too many possibilities for Iran to prepare for all of them. I doubt they will be this foolish, but fools gonna fool.
Not a penny for tribute...
The Trolls of Hormuz ,LOL
Iran certainly is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea - they signed it on 10 December, 1982.
Included in the Convention are the rules on the Right of Innocent Passage (Article 19).
I stand corrected on that. Iran is actually in the same position as the U.S. They are a signatory but their government never ratified it.
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