"however difficult this is to digest, kidnapping a foreign vessel is tantamount to piracy or even war. Hopefully not literally, but it could be."Iran seems to be responding to what it sees as our earlier kidnap. I guess that after October 31st, the UK will not be enforcing EU sanctions."Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister and co-chair of the European council on foreign relations, pinpointed the ambiguities of the British action in Gibraltar: “The legality of the UK seizure of a tanker heading for Syria with oil from Iran intrigues me. One refers to EU sanctions against Syria, but Iran is not a member of the EU. And the EU as a principle doesn’t impose its sanctions on others. That’s what the US does.”To the Iranian eye, the British action had nothing to do with an EU embargo, and everything to do with an desire to support the US squeeze on Iranian oil exports, the quickest route to bringing the Iranian economy to its knees. Some reports estimate that Iranian exports are down to 200,000 barrels a month."https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/20/gulf-crisis-tanker-retaliation-iran-hormuzWar by other means, but we cannot always control or predict the response of of the opposing party.
David Ainsworth ● 2671d