Iranian state media has released dramatic footage purportedly showing their military “confronting” American forces and boarding a tanker in the Sea of Oman to block the US from seizing an oil shipment for violating US sanctions.
WATCH:
[Note: Ignore the title in the video above, it’s the only English mirror I could find.]
From Press TV, “IRGC releases footage of confronting US piracy targeting Iranian oil in Sea of Oman”:
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) releases detailed footage of its confrontation late last month against an American act of piracy targeting an Iranian fuel shipment.
The incident took place on October 25, but news and footage of which were released on Wednesday.
During the episode, American forces confiscated the tanker that was carrying a cargo of Iranian oil in the strategic Sea of Oman, transferring its consignment of crude to another vessel.
The IRGC then staged a maritime operation against the second vessel, landing its helicopters on its deck and navigating the ship towards Iranian waters.
The footage depicts the incident in great detail, first showing the IRGC Navy’s intelligence command and intelligence gathering network detecting the vessel laden with the stolen crude.
The IRGC Navy is subsequently seen dispatching its rapid reaction units to the area to seize back the cargo.
US officials are denying the incident and claiming Iran seized the ship for no clear reason.
From The New York Times:
Two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential intelligence assessments, said that Iran had seized a Vietnamese-flagged tanker, the MV Southys.
A U.S. Navy destroyer, The Sullivans, arrived to monitor the seizure but took no action and was not threatened by approaching Iranian speedboats, one of the officials said.
John F. Kirby, the chief Pentagon spokesman, denied Iran’s allegations that the United States had seized the merchant vessel, whose nationality he declined to identify.
“It’s a ridiculous claim,” he told reporters in Washington. “It’s absolutely not true. And I would add that Iran’s actions, the ones that are true of them, illegally boarding and seizing a merchant vessel, constitute a blatant violation of international law.”
Note: the Pentagon didn’t even bother to make up a fake motive for Iran to stage this.
The Vietnamese appear to be trying to stay out of the dispute.
As the AP reports:
Vietnam was seeking more information Thursday about a Vietnamese oil tanker that was seized at gunpoint last month by Iranian soldiers in the Gulf of Oman, while vowing to ensure the safety and humane treatment of the ship’s crew members.
[…] Vietnamese officials “continue to closely follow the developments and work closely with Iranian authorities to resolve this issue in accordance with the law and enact necessary measures to safeguard the rights and interests of Vietnamese nationals,” Pham Thu Hang, deputy spokesperson in Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Thursday.
The captain of the MV Southys told the Vietnamese Embassy in Iran that all 26 crew members were being treated well and were in “normal health,” Hang told reporters at a scheduled briefing.
There’s reason to believe the Iranians as the US seized four of their tankers just last year.
If the story is true, it’s just the latest in a string of humiliations for the “woke” US empire which is now focused more on fighting “white rage” and anti-CRT “domestic terrorists” moms than maintaining US hegemony.
Last month, the New York Times reported on a leaked CIA memo detailing how the agency is having dozens of informants outed, executed and turned into double agents in China and Iran.
What could possibly be driving our government’s decline?
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