The United States Navy has sent a destroyer toward the Persian Gulf on Tuesday after Iran was unrelenting in giving away the control of a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship after accusing it of trespassing in territorial waters, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The ship under question, the Maersk Tigris has 24 crew members on board. The Iranian forces fired shots across the ship’s bow, the Pentagon confirmed, after its captain declined an order by the forces to divert farther into Iranian waters. It was stopped by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Patrol while it was cruising through the Strait of Hormuz.
After the initial firing, the ship sent out a distress call, prompting the United States Navy to direct a destroyer, the Farragut, to the area and to put aircraft on standby to monitor the situation.
This recent standoff may have put negotiations on Iran’s acceptance as a nuclear energy nation in a standstill had not for the prompt recovery tactics of the United States officials. The Marshall Islands, an independent nation in the Pacific since 1986, has a “free association” relationship with the country.
The Pentagon spokesman said the ship was traveling through Iranian territorial waters that are, by international agreement, open to foreign ships making an innocent passage. It is considered “inappropriate” for Iran to have fired warning shots by the Pentagon. But he also added that it was too early to understand the intentions behind the action of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Meanwhile Cargo company Maersk’s spokesman said that the ship was a charter vessel, not a company-crewed ship. A spokesman for the charter company, Rickmers Shipmanagement, said that the crew members were all Eastern European or Asian, and that the ship had been headed to a port near Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The Rickmers spokesman, Cor Radings, said the captain had said that the ship did not stray into Iranian waters outside the international maritime route. The Maersk spokesman, Michael Storgaard, said in an email that he could not recall another episode in which a Maersk vessel had been detained by the Iranian authorities. Maersk said Tuesday evening that the ship was being escorted toward Bandar Abbas, Iran, by Iranian patrol boats.
The episode raised tensions between the United States and the Iranians, who last week turned back a naval convoy suspected of carrying weapons bound for Shiite rebels in Yemen after the American military sent an aircraft carrier group to waters off the coast.
The ship under question, the Maersk Tigris has 24 crew members on board. The Iranian forces fired shots across the ship’s bow, the Pentagon confirmed, after its captain declined an order by the forces to divert farther into Iranian waters. It was stopped by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Patrol while it was cruising through the Strait of Hormuz.
After the initial firing, the ship sent out a distress call, prompting the United States Navy to direct a destroyer, the Farragut, to the area and to put aircraft on standby to monitor the situation.
This recent standoff may have put negotiations on Iran’s acceptance as a nuclear energy nation in a standstill had not for the prompt recovery tactics of the United States officials. The Marshall Islands, an independent nation in the Pacific since 1986, has a “free association” relationship with the country.
The Pentagon spokesman said the ship was traveling through Iranian territorial waters that are, by international agreement, open to foreign ships making an innocent passage. It is considered “inappropriate” for Iran to have fired warning shots by the Pentagon. But he also added that it was too early to understand the intentions behind the action of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Meanwhile Cargo company Maersk’s spokesman said that the ship was a charter vessel, not a company-crewed ship. A spokesman for the charter company, Rickmers Shipmanagement, said that the crew members were all Eastern European or Asian, and that the ship had been headed to a port near Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The Rickmers spokesman, Cor Radings, said the captain had said that the ship did not stray into Iranian waters outside the international maritime route. The Maersk spokesman, Michael Storgaard, said in an email that he could not recall another episode in which a Maersk vessel had been detained by the Iranian authorities. Maersk said Tuesday evening that the ship was being escorted toward Bandar Abbas, Iran, by Iranian patrol boats.
The episode raised tensions between the United States and the Iranians, who last week turned back a naval convoy suspected of carrying weapons bound for Shiite rebels in Yemen after the American military sent an aircraft carrier group to waters off the coast.