# Maersk Insists On Release of Ship and Crew Seized by Iran



## Geoff Gower (Sep 8, 2011)

COPENHAGEN, April 30 (Reuters) – Danish shipping giant Maersk insisted on Thursday on the release of a vessel and crew seized by Iran but an Iranian Embassy statement said the Maersk Tigris would only be let go once a years-old debt case was settled. The Marshall-Islands flagged Maersk Tigris container ship was detained by Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday after shots were fired across its bow, spurring the United States to send military vessels to monitor the situation. Maersk had chartered the ship, which according to ship operator Rickmer Shipmanagement is owned by undisclosed private investors. The company met with Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization on Wednesday and said the company “must presume” the seizure was related to the dispute.“We have, however, not received any written or formal confirmation that the seizure and the cargo case are connected,” the company said in a statement.
“We must insist that the crew and vessel are released as soon as possible. The crew is not employed by Maersk Line, nor is the vessel owned by Maersk Line. Maersk Tigris and its crew are thus not in any way party to the case.” Maersk, the world’s biggest container shipping line, said it had agreed to pay an Iranian company $163,000 after an Iranian court ruling in February which related to a dispute about 10 container boxes transported to Dubai in 2005. “The Iranian company appealed the case seeking a higher compensation,” Maersk said.“Only today, 30 April, have we learnt that the appeal court has ruled Maersk Line to pay $3.6 million. As we do not have the details of the ruling, we are not able to comment hereon, nor at this point speculate on our options.” A statement from the Iranian Embassy in Copenhagen said the Maersk Tigris was owned by Maersk and that it had been apprehended in Iranian waters. It said the Danish Embassy in Tehran had been informed of the case as it progressed. “Naturally the ship will be released after settlements of debts by Maersk shipping Line and will be allowed to sail to its final destination,” the statement, dated April 29 but posted on Thursday, said. “Iranian authorities reiterate that there has been absolutely no political or security intentions or considerations behind the incident,” the statement said. The incident occurred at a critical juncture in U.S.-Iranian relations, which could thaw should a tentative nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers including Washington be clinched. It also coincides with heightened tension between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia over the civil war in Yemen, in which they support opposing sides. The Maersk Tigris was anchored close to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, according to Reuters ship tracking data. There were 24 crew members on the vessel, mostly from Eastern Europe and Asia, and also a British national. It was the second ship in less than a week to be approached by Iranian patrol boats. Earlier the U.S.-flagged Maersk Kensington was followed but no shots were fired, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, adding the incidents showed “a pattern of harassment”. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday Tehran “will respect international navigation in the Gulf”.


----------



## Day Sailor (Nov 9, 2014)

I thought that International law was that the debt stayed with the vessel. Or am I hopelessly stuck in the past?


----------



## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

Why on earth would you expect these primitives to know or care about the law?


----------



## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

Apparently the USN is now going to escort US flagged ships through the Straight, which leads to the interesting question of what will be their rules of engagement?


----------



## Basil (Feb 4, 2006)

It would be interesting to hear from a maritime law specialist on whether this could be construed as an act of piracy.


----------



## RHP (Nov 1, 2007)

Navy ships escorting U.S.-flagged merchants in strait
By Meghann Myers, Staff writer6:24 p.m. EDT April 30, 2015

Navy ships in the Persian Gulf are accompanying U.S.-flagged merchant vessels through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran's recent seizure of one cargo ship and its harassment of another in international waters, a defense official has confirmed to Navy Times.
A dozen ships are operating in the area and capable of providing support, the official said on Thursday. U.S. warships frequently transit the strait, but it is more unusual for the U.S. to routinely convoy U.S.-flagged merchants through.
The warships include ships with the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which entered 5th Fleet three weeks ago and spent several days in the waters off Yemen, a show of force that compelled Iranian ships to turn around.

The official was unable to elaborate on tasking for the ships, which include:
Coastal patrol ships Whirlwind, Monsoon, Typhoon, Thunderbolt and Firebolt.
The minesweeper Devastator.
The destroyers Milius, Farragut, Winston S. Churchill and Paul Hamilton.
The cruiser Normandy.
The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt.

The move, first reported by*Defense One, comes as tensions rise in the region, with news that Iranian navy ships harassed one U.S.-flagged shipping vessel in international waters and later boarded a Marshall Islands cargo ship, a country under U.S. protection.
Only a week before, the TR and members of its strike group converged off the coast of Yemen, as rumors swirled that Iranian cargo ships were bringing in weapons to arm the Houthi rebels in their clash against the U.S.-backed Yemeni government.
The Defense Department is not communicating with Iran, and the country's motives are, "not clear to the Department of Defense," Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren told reporters Wednesday. "It's difficult to know why the Iranians are operating this way," he said said. "We certainly call on them to respect all of the internationally established rules of freedom of navigation, the Law of the Sea, to which they are a signatory, and other established protocols."


What Really Happened in the Persian Gulf on April 28, 2015? 

Iran’s navy has seized a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel, the MV*Maersk Tigris. Diplomatic Times - By*Ankit Panda April 29, 2015
A 65,000 ton, Danish-owned, Singapore-chartered, container ship, en route to the United Arab Emirates from Saudi Arabia, manned mostly by Eastern European and Asian sailors, is intercepted, boarded, and confiscated by the Iranian navy, prompting a U.S. destroyer to investigate.That wasn’t an anecdote from Tom Friedman’s next book on globalization–it’s a rough description of what took place on Tuesday, April 28, in the strategically important sea lanes of the Strait of Hormuz. 

Allow me to get into the details:
The shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz have long been highlighted as a potential flashpoint amid the simmering geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran. Its waters are of particular geostrategic significance given that over a third of the world’s petroleum traded by sea passes through the region. Iran has repeatedly emphasized its dominance over the waters, threatening to blockade the strait in a time of crisis. 

Today, we saw an acute manifestation of Iran’s audacity when the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) seized and escorted the Marshall Islands-flagged MV*Maersk Tigris, a shipping vessel belonging to Denmark’s*A.P. Moller–Maersk Group and chartered by Singapore-based Rickmers Shipmanagement, toward the Iranian port at Bandar Abbas. 

The incident sparked a response by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT), which ordered theUSS*Farragut, an*Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that was 60 miles from the point of the Tigris’ interception, to respond to the vessel’s distress signal. The incident took place as*Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif led a delegation to New York City for the*Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference*at the United Nations, meeting with Western diplomats on the sidelines to discuss the ongoing P5+1 talks over his country’s nuclear program.

Map depicting the MV Maersk Tigris’ original path toward the UAE and diversion after being intercepted by the IRGCN. (Source: marinetraffic.com)

Saudi Arabia-backed, UAE-based*Al Arabiya*was among the first sources to break the news in English. It reported that Iran had fired warning shots (true) and seized a U.S.-flagged vessel (false). Nevertheless, the initial reports sparked considerable online panic at the prospect that the United States and Iran could be headed for a major confrontation. 

The report also noted that the crew of the ship numbered 34 and were American. Needless to say, U.S. citizens being held against their will by Iran hits a raw nerve for the United States given*certain historical events. We’ve since learned,*thanks to*Reuters, that the Tigris’ has a crew of 24, most of whom hail “from Eastern Europe and Asia.”*In the process of the seizure, the IRGCN fired across the bow of the ship.

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren*told*CNN*that*“the master was contacted and directed to proceed further into Iranian territorial waters. He declined and one of the IRGCN craft fired shots across the bridge of the Maersk Tigris.”

Iran’s reasons for seizing the ship were at first unclear. Speculation abounded that the incident was a show of force intended to strike back at the United States after it sent the USS*Theodore Roosevelt*(CVN-71) to*intercept an Iranian arms shipment to Yemen’s Houthis last week. Additionally, others suggested that the seizure could have been a move by hardliners opposing Iran’s negotiations with the West over its nuclear program *– *an attempt to spark a broader crisis to derail those talks.*Reza Marashi, research director of the National Iranian American Council,*told*The Hill*that the IRGCN’s boldness could have actually been in retaliation against Saudi Arabia. Tensions between the two geopolitical rivals has been high recently given Saudi Arabia’s campaign against the Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Marashi notes that the ship’s point-of-departure being Saudi Arabia supported this hypothesis.

Soon enough, however, Iran’s*Fars News Agency*reported*that the reason for the seizure was far more mundane: the Iran Ports Authority had procured a court order to seize the ship.*”The ship was seized after a relevant court order was issued for its confiscation,” stated an “informed” source that spoke to*Fars. The agency added that that the ship was reportedly “seized for trespassing on Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf,” though a quick*Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) assessment*dispelled that fairly quickly. (The ship was bound for the United Arab Emirates port of Jebel Ali, from Saudi Arabia, according to*Marine Traffic’s open source tracker.) 

The ship’s status, as of this writing, is noted as “at anchor” at Bandar Abbas. In the wake of the Tigris incident,*CNN*learned that a U.S.-flagged ship*had*been intercepted by the IRGCN *– *on*Friday, April 24, four whole days before the*Tigris*incident. Reportedly, the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet issued a notice to commercial ships to exercise caution in the Persian Gulf and the Hormuz Strait following the incident.

The Marshall Islands isn’t normally a country whose name you’ll read at the center of a major international incident, but the fact that the Tigris was flagged with the country’s flag complicated the situation. After gaining independence from the United States in 1986, the Marshall Islands enjoys pseudo-protectorate status under the United States’ security umbrella.*As per the*Compact of Free Association*governing the relationship between the United States and the Marshall Islands, the United States “has full authority and responsibility for security and defense matters in or relating to the Republic of the Marshall Islands.”*The U.S. Defense Department’s*lawyers have determined, however, that for the purposes of the*Tigris‘ capture by the IRGCN, the U.S. has no obligation to respond or come to the defense of the Marshall Islands-flagged vessel. (Eli Lake and Josh Rogin have more on the Marshall Islands angle*over at*Bloomberg View.)

The U.S. government’s reaction has to the incident has been somewhat underwhelming. State Department spokesperson Jeff Rathke noted, somewhat obviously, that*”it’s a key concern of the United States to ensure that sea lanes in the region remain open and safe.”

In a slightly more lively take, the U.S. Senate’s national security dynamic duo, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, chimed in as expected,*issuing a statement*in which they noted that the Tigris incident was “a serious and deliberate provocation against the United States and the international community.”
They added, “This act is another display of Iran’s contempt for the rules-based international order and a threat to the freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital sea lanes.”

The*Maersk Tigris‘ fate remains in flux, but it is already apparent that this episode will be cited by U.S. critics of the Iran nuclear talks. Iran’s brazen aggression in international waters is indeed worrying and a threat to principles that the United States holds dear, including the freedom of navigation. The administration will do its best to contain the fallout of this incident and avoid escalation with Iran lest it affect the fragile diplomatic rapprochement that seems to be budding between the two decades-long enemies. The coming days will offer an opportunity to better assess the significance of this anomalous but important event.


No need for US to escort ships in Persian Gulf: 
Iran Navy Commander

Source: Press TV 4 May 4, 2015 Payvan Iran News
Iran's Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari says the US Navy does not need to escort US-flagged ships travelling through the secure Persian Gulf waters. 

Iran's Navy chief Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari (file photo) "Security fully prevails in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman due to the permanent presence of Iran's [regular] Navy and the naval forces of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). Therefore, there is no need for the Americans to escort their ships in this region," Sayyari told reporters on Sunday.
He, however, recommended the US to escort its ships sailing in the Gulf of Aden and Bab al-Mandab Strait because of insecure conditions.
Sayyari was reacting to a decision by the US Navy to accompany US and British-flagged commercial ships as they travel through the Strait of Hormuz into and out of the Persian Gulf.
Pentagon spokesman, Colonel Steve Warren, said the decision is a direct result of the Iranian Navy's recent seizure of a Marshall Islands-flagged ship in the Persian Gulf.

Sayyari defended as "fully legal" Iran's decision to impound the cargo ship in the Persian Gulf.

On April 28, Iranian forces boarded the Maersk Tigris (shown below) carrying the Marshall Islands flag in the Strait of Hormuz, after the vessel, with 34 crew members aboard, reportedly trespassed on Iranian territorial waters.

Maersk Line says it was told by Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) on April 29 that an Iranian court had ordered the company to pay USD 3.6 million (about 3.2 million euros) in compensation in the case. Maersk Line says it was told by Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) on April 29 that an Iranian court had ordered the company to pay USD 3.6 million (about 3.2 million euros) in compensation in the case.

Since the seizure of the vessel, several Iranian officials have said the case is a purely commercial affair.

A day after the ship was impounded, Iran's Foreign Ministry defended the move as legal saying the vessel was seized based on a court decision. The PMO said on the same day that the seizure of Maersk Tigris was based on a court ruling issued on March 16, which reportedly came after a plaintiff sued the Maersk Line over unpaid debt	

05/04/15


----------

