Coalition for Piracy? US Proposes Patrolling Alliance

The US government on the one hand unilaterally pulled out of the landmark nuclear deal of 2015 with Iran and continues its internationally blasted path of hostility against Iran. And on the other hand, the Trump administration and its allies are seeking ways to at least ostensibly control the situation amid an Iranian show of resolve to reduce its nuclear commitments and firmly resist the American oil and banking embargo.

To this goal, recently the US proposed to set up a force protecting the shipping in the Bab-el-Mandab and Strait of Hormuz with the allies. Bringing in the spotlight the issue requires a deep look at the US and its allies’ goals behind the initiative. With its nature and the background of its founders– last week, Britain as the US ally seized an Iranian oil tanker in Gibraltar– the new coalition can be dubbed the “military coalition of the pirates.”

Piracy scenario started by Britain

The coalition of pirates was opened by Britain’s illegal seizure of an Iranian oil tanker, named Grace 1, in the international waters off Gibraltar. The local government of Gibraltar, a remain of the British colonial legacy, on July 4 called the move legal as it said it London was required to follow the EU sanctions on Syria, the destination Britain argues the vessel was heading to, something Iran firmly denied. But the commitment to the sanctions is hardly the case. The fact is that the British officials who have gone through a crisis after Prime Minister Theresa May resigned in early June seek to appease the American president Donald Trump and other White House officials as they prepare to move out of the European Union and need Washington as an alternative trade partner.

The illegal move of Britain, which is an act of piracy in the international waters, indicates the secret agreements between Europe and the US against Iran. When the US president pulled out of the nuclear deal in May 2018, the Europeans struggled to keep Iran in the agreement while Washington stepped up the maximum pressure represented by the economic sanctions. But the Iranian game-changing move of shooting down an American spy drone which violated its territorial waters in the Persian Gulf and reducing its agreement commitments changed all of the equations designed by the US and the Europeans.

Now a new phase of the anti-Iranian scenario by Washington and some of the European states has begun to be implemented with the main aim being constant pressure on Tehran by piracy in the modern time. These countries on the one hand ostensibly seek to escort their oil tankers movement in Bab-el-Mandab and Strait of Hormuz and on the other hand maintain the pressures on Iran through seizing the Iranian tankers carrying Iranian oil out of the region.

To implement this dangerous adventure, the US had proposed setting up a patrolling coalition in the Strait of Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandab. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford on July 9 said that the American military plans to provide Washington’s allies with ships and equipment necessary for sea patrolling to escort the oil vessels moving to and from Strait of Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandab. The US administration said that this is a test of allies to see which of them has the real political will to join this purportedly security alliance to protect the freedom of navigation.

The protection plan comes while the US and Britain themselves have recently embarked on the piracy in the international waters, violating all of the international laws. Seizing the Iranian oil tanker is proof of that. The hilarious point is that the actors which themselves openly engaged in piracy seek to form a bloc to protect the freedom of shipping in the international waters. This is reminiscent of the Western claims of support to human rights and democracy while they brazenly violate human rights across the world and support apparently despotic allied regimes. This drives to the conclusion that the new coalition is more a military coalition of pirates than a legitimate coalition protecting the freedom of navigation in the major shipping routes.