{"id":190475,"date":"2019-06-24T16:09:46","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T16:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=190475"},"modified":"2019-06-29T05:57:04","modified_gmt":"2019-06-29T05:57:04","slug":"us-proposes-tanker-protection-force-in-wake-of-gulf-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=190475","title":{"rendered":"US proposes tanker protection force in wake of Gulf attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction \u2013 June 24, 2019<\/h1>\n

On the back of 9\/11 the U.S. was able to build a military coalition that went on to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.<\/h5>\n
Now the Trump administration is trying to set a similar process in motion in the wake of alleged tanker attacks in the gulf. No matter that the U.S. has yet to provide a shred of hard evidence that Iran was behind the attacks. All we have are unsubstantiated allegations from warmongers like Pompeo and Bolton that Iran was responsible.<\/h5>\n
Despite many unanswered questions<\/a> <\/span>the Trump administration is adamant: Iran was behind the attacks<\/h5>\n
On the basis of that the Trump administration now appears trying to form an international force. Ostensibly it will be used to guard tankers against Iranian attacks. However, once formed it would only be a short step for the military alliance to actually strike Iran. Ed.<\/h5>\n

US proposes tanker protection force in wake of Gulf attacks<\/h1>\n

Patrick Wintour \u2013 The Guardian June 24, 2019<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The US is to propose an international maritime Gulf protection force, its special envoy on Iran<\/a> has said, as the Trump administration prepared to announce fresh economic sanctions on Tehran.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brian Hook said he had been holding extensive talks with US allies in the wake of the Gulf of Oman tanker attacks<\/a>, when two vessels were damaged by explosions. He believed a global coalition to protect shipping was required.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been too many attacks. We could have had an environmental disaster and extensive loss of life due to reckless Iranian provocations,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hook said the G20 summit this week in Japan would be a good forum for discussions. As many as 17 countries had been adversely effected by the recent tanker attacks either directly or through crew, insurance or contracts, he said, and an international force might isolate Iran diplomatically as well as make it more perilous for Tehran or its surrogates to mount further attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iran has denied responsibility for the blasts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hook, seen as one of the hawks on Iran inside the US administration, said Tehran faced a choice: \u201cThey can either start coming to the negotiating table or they can watch their economy continue to crumble.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tensions with Iran have been mounting since Donald Trump withdrew the <\/strong><\/span><\/a>US<\/a><\/strong><\/span> from the 2015 nuclear deal last year and began applying pressure on <\/a>Tehran<\/a><\/strong><\/span> through economic sanctions.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Monday the US president said other countries, including China and Japan, should protect their own oil tankers in the Middle East. \u201cWhy are we protecting the shipping lanes for other countries \u2026for zero compensation,\u201d he wrote on Twitter. \u201cAll of these countries should be protecting their own ships on what has always been a dangerous journey.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, met Saudi Arabia\u2019s king and crown prince for talks on Monday as the US sought to promote an anti-Iran alliance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou are a dear friend,\u201d King Salman told Pompeo, who was due to fly to the United Arab Emirates<\/a> later on Monday for further discussions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before his departure from the US, Pompeo had said Saudi Arabia<\/a> and the UAE were \u201cgreat allies in the challenge that Iran presents\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

He also reiterated Donald Trump\u2019s offer of dialogue to improve relations with Iran. \u201cWe\u2019re prepared to negotiate with no preconditions. They know precisely how to find us,\u201d Pompeo said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, the US pulled back from the brink<\/strong><\/span><\/a> of a military confrontation with Iran after Trump called off strikes<\/a><\/strong><\/span> ordered in retaliation for the shooting down of a US drone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iran has said it will not enter into discussions until sanctions are lifted. The fresh round of US sanctions is however an attempt to force the Iranian leadership to hold talks with the US. A near-total ban on oil exports is already in place.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Sunday, the hawkish US national security adviser, John Bolton, said Tehran should not \u201cmistake US prudence and discretion for weakness\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

A drone strike on an airport in Saudi Arabia by Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels, which left one person dead and 21 injured, will have coloured the mood among Gulf states. It follows another attack on 12 June<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hook is also to meet officials from Britain, France and Germany this week, but declined to say what pressure he will putting on those countries to follow the US out of the nuclear deal with Iran if, as Tehran has threatened, it breaches its permitted uranium enrichment stock levels on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

The EU has the choice of either putting the issue in the nuclear deal dispute mechanism, or threatening its own retaliatory measures.<\/span><\/p>\n

The British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said the UK was focused on de-escalating the dispute and refused to comment directly on claims that London had not been consulted before Trump sanctioned and then cancelled the planned strike on Iran last Thursday. Hunt said the UK had the closest possible intelligence relationship with the US.<\/span><\/p>\n

Germany appeared cool towards US talk of building a global coalition against Iran. A foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday that Berlin had \u201ctaken note via the media\u201d of Pompeo\u2019s comments and added that \u201cour top aim is and remains a de-escalation of the serious situation\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hook claimed the EU was being subjected to nuclear blackmail by Iran, and claimed Iran had rejected the opportunity to take various diplomatic \u201coff-ramps\u201d in the past year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The UK, together with France and Germany, is urging Tehran to wait for European countries to set up the much-delayed financial mechanism designed to help businesses in Europe trade with Iran, circumventing secondary US sanctions. Iran saw an increase in trade as one of the key benefits of the deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This looks ominously like the first steps toward building an international military coalition against Iran <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":189860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Iran"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=190475"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190481,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190475\/revisions\/190481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/189860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=190475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=190475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=190475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}