Iran seizes cargo Ship in strait of Hormuz

Iranian naval forces boarded the cargo ship MV Maersk Tigris after firing warning shots and ordering it to go deeper into Iranian waters. US aircraft and warships monitored the situation after receiving a distress call from the Maersk Tigris as it was accosted on its way through the Strait of Hormuz.

According to statements from the Pentagon, the ship has no American citizens aboard and was flying a Marshall Islands flag, in contradiction to early reports from the Al-Arabiya news source that the Maersk Tigris had 34 Americans aboard. Farsnews has claimed that the cargo ship is US owned. Some sources challenge the Pentagon line by indicating that the Maersk Tigris was passing through international waters, making the Iranian seizure unlawful. The Maersk Tigris has changed its course and is now heading towards Bandar Abbas. It is unknown at this time what goods the Maersk Tigris is carrying.

This seizure of a ship in supposed international waters flies in the face of the US deployment of a Carrier Strike Group a week ago with an explicit mission to protect shipping in the region. As White House spokesman Josh Earnest stated back on April 21^st:

“The principal goal of this operation is to maintain freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.  This is obviously a region of the world where significant commerce takes place.  This includes energy shipments, but other goods that move through this area of the world both as they transit the Red Sea into the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal.  Obviously there are significant European markets.  There are also obviously important markets on the other side of the Gulf of Aden as well.

So this military presence — well, let me say it this way.  The movement of this particular aircraft carrier would augment the American military presence in the Gulf of Aden and would send a clear signal about our continued insistence about the free flow of commerce and the freedom of movement in the region.”

Additionally, the United States is obligated to protect the Marshall Islands. But most puzzling of all is why Iran is rising tensions around the Gulf of Hormuz at this time, when Iran’s nuclear program is under renewed scrutiny and on the very day the Corker-Menendez bill is being debated in the Senate. A possible explanation is a show of force by Iran in return for their shipment of weapons to the Houthis being chased off by the US Navy.

Iran has mad a calculated move to take aggressive action betting on the U.S. administration to give a less than robust response in order to protect the nuclear arms deal coveted by Washington.  That could well explain the discrepancy in reporting on where the ship was and who was on board when it was interdicted by the Iranian navy.