Iran runs rings around British navy

Drone footage of Iran’s detention of the British-flagged ship ‘Stena Impero’ for violating navigational rules in the Strait of Hormuz after colliding with a fishing trawler, brings into sharp focus the UK’s struggle to project power in foreign seas.

Here’s an article for ‘Asia Times’ in this regard by Beirut-based Armenian journalist Alison Tahmizian Meuse.

If there was any doubt remaining that Britain has ceased to be a colonial power capable of imposing its will in foreign seas on command, it was evident this month, as Iranian naval vessels ran literal rings around a detained British oil tanker.

Drone footage released by Iran’s Fars news agency last Saturday showed a bird’s-eye view of the UK’s Stena Impero, moored in the port of Bandar Abbas after its detention by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In the video, a pair of Iranian boats speed in circles around the tanker to the soundtrack of heavy metal.

In the past 24 hours, a leaked audio recording laid bare the failed attempt by the British navy to avert the impounding.

An officer, said to be an Iranian, is heard telling the crew of the UK oil tanker Stena Impero on Friday: “Alter your course, do 360 degrees immediately, over. Obey, and you will be safe.”

A British warship, despite being further away, then issues a competing directive, telling the commercial ship it should continue on its path.

“Stena Impero, this is British warship, Foxtrot 236. I reiterate that you are conducting transit passage in a recognized international strait,” the British officer says, before the vessel is escorted to Iranian shores.

The veracity of the recording, released by maritime security risk consultancy Dryad Global, has yet to be confirmed.

The operation itself – videotaped and published by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps – shows Balaclava-wearing commandos descending on the British tanker by helicopter.

The detention came after Britain illegally impounded in the Strait of Gibraltar the super tanker ‘Grace I’ carrying 2-million-plus Iranian crude oil on June 4 on the orders of the US, when it could have avoided this folly.

Asked what the United States would do to help retrieve the vessel of its ally, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared to wash his hands of the incident.

He told Fox and Friends: “The responsibility in the first instance falls to the United Kingdom to care of their ships.”

The UK – in the midst of messy talks to leave the European Union – said on Monday it was looking to its European allies to help its Persian Gulf shipping.

For its parts, staunchly pro-British and pro-American Saudi Arabia, appeared to quickly absorb the severity of the situation, by releasing an Iranian oil tanker on Saturday which it had illegally detained for several weeks in the Red Sea when the vessel requested technical repairs.

Iran’s senior commanders say the country has officially moved from a position of deterrence to one of active resistance.

General Nozar Nemati, the commander of Iran’s ground forces told a recent gathering in the city of Shiraz: “We have put aside the defensive approach to also develop an offensive approach.”

Another senior commander, Major General Gholam Ali Rashid, told an audience in Tehran that Iran’s military would henceforth be practicing a “firm and smart confrontation against threatening attitudes and hostile measures.”

The statements appeared to enshrine in policy the right responses against US attempts to choke off Iranian oil exports.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Dr. Ali Larijani, said: “The British committed piracy and we responded to it.”

Over the weekend, Britain’s former chief of naval staff Alan West penned an op-ed warning that the ongoing Persian Gulf crisis risked escalating into a full-blown war.

He said: The UK now risks becoming embroiled in an open conflict with Iran, and it remains to be seen how the new prime minister and his cabinet copes with the situation, while facing the crisis of Brexit with the European Union.

AS/EA