In the media and among the reports we had read or heard about Somalia pirates but it seems they are nothing comparing to their big bosses the Americans but the Americans commit piracy in a civilized way and under the label of confiscating the illegal transportation or deal.

On Thursday once again media outlets revealed another act of piracy by the U.S. but the country did it through its ally Greece. According to the report, the United States government confiscated an Iranian oil cargo held near Greece for nearly a month one day after Iranian authorities protested against Athens’ decision to hand over the cargo to American authorities.

The Thursday report by Reuters cited statements by unnamed source showing that the U.S. Department of Justice had confiscated 700,000 barrels of Iranian oil cargo seized last month off the southern Greek island of Evia onboard a Russian-operated ship.

A Greek source said that the oil cargo had been transferred to another ship hired by Washington and will be send to the U.S.

The source said the U.S. Department of Justice had “informed Greece that the cargo on the vessel is Iranian oil”.

Another source confirmed the American seizure and said that the Iranian oil cargo is currently being transferred to the Liberia-flagged tanker Ice Energy, which is operated by Greek shipping company Dynacom.

The confiscation comes a day after Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned charge d’affaires of Greece’s embassy in Tehran to declare its strong objections to the seizure of an Iranian-flagged ship in Greek waters.

The ship, previously Russian-flagged, had been sailing in international waters before it was forced to anchor near Greece over technical problems.

Iranian authorities have said they will hold the Greek government responsible for the confiscation.

It is the second time the U.S. confiscates Iranian oil outside its territorial waters on trumped-up charges brought by American courts. In 2020, four cargoes of Iranian oil bound for Venezuela were seized by the US with the help of foreign agents. The cargoes were then sold for more than $40 million, according to reports.

The seizure also comes a day after the U.S. government announced sanctions targeting a Russian-backed oil network supporting Iran’s anti-sanctions activities.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, the U.S. imposed sanctions on what it described as a Russian-backed oil smuggling and money laundering network for the IRGC’s Quds Force. The sanctions seem to be a justification for this confiscation.

The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation for the period between the 1650s and the 1730s, when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, the Indian Ocean, North America, and West Africa but it seems the new era of piracy has started by the U.S. unilateralism and it can threaten the fate of shipping and sea transportation in the world.

Reacting to blocking Iranian vessel from sailing by Greece, Iran’s Ports and Shipping Organization (PMO) in a statement said that the action is considered ‘an act of piracy’, calling for abidance by international regulations.

Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) as the duly authorized maritime administration of the Islamic Republic of Iran reacted against actions of the Greek government as to hindering Iranian vessel from sailing and arresting its cargo and urged the Greek government to fulfill its international obligations.

According to international regulations approved by IMO regarding safety of lives at sea, all countries are required to provide assistance to vessels in distress near their coastlines, until the danger is resolved, and safety of the vessel and people on board can be guaranteed, while any necessary repairs and facilities should be provided to achieve or facilitate the above.

Moreover, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) has also stipulated limitations for bunker operations or any other activities that pose the risk of pollution to the marine environment. The Greek government, nevertheless, has been acting in full violation and negligence of these provisions as well.

But it seems international bodies try to remain passive when it comes to react to the U.S. or West’s violation of international laws and as it was mentioned before, it is not the first time that Iran’s cargo is confiscated by the pirate U.S. or its allies. But when Iran wants to take retaliatory action or stops vessels over the violation of international waters on its waters, all international bodies stand against Tehran and condemn it while they really know that the U.S. is the main culprit.

So continuation of such unilateral piracy and passiveness of the international powers will lead to a pick-up in piracy and this business will be revived and another age of piracy will start in the world under the label of “confiscating illegal or sanctioned cargos” and no country in the world will feel safe in its shipping industry because any time the U.S. wishes their ships can be stopped and their cargos could be confiscated and it is not a good phenomenon in the 21th^t Century that the world is moving to the so-called modern civilization.

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For years the Islamic Republic of Iran and Britain have been at loggerheads over the return of Iran’s money or delivery of the weapons that the UK was to sell to Tehran. The payment of a £400m debt that Britain owes to Iran over an unfulfilled military equipment contract dating back to 1970s.

In the mid-1970s the UK sold more than 1,500 Chieftain battle tanks and 250 repair vehicles to its close ally the Shah of Iran. Iran paid £600m for the tanks in advance, but the UK, through its arms sales export subsidiary International Military Services (IMS), in February 1979 refused to deliver the remaining weaponry when the shah was deposed and replaced by a new revolutionary and Islamic regime. Only 185 tanks had been delivered.

After years of private negotiations, in 1990 Iran made a claim for its money back for the undelivered weaponry by taking the UK to international arbitration in The Hague. The UK made a counterclaim in 1996, but in an arbitration in 2001 the UK lost both claims. Iran then sought to have the award enforced in the English courts, something Britain resisted until IMS in 2002 put £350m into the UK court as security. The UK, after getting the award’s size reduced once in The Hague finally seemed to have run out of options when its final appeal was dismissed in 2009.

Although several times the domestic and international courts have ruled UK to pay Iran’s debts, this country has evaded under the pretext of the U.S. and EU sanctions but it seems the country is inclined to pay back the money  and Iran’s money has been taken as hostage by the British like their ancestors who were pirates and used to loot people.

On Thursday, former British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt urged the government in London to expedite efforts to settle an outstanding debt to Iran, saying the issue is affecting the relations between the two countries.

Speaking to the BBC Radio, Hunt said that the payment of a £400m debt that Britain owes to Iran over an unfulfilled military equipment contract dating back to 1970s was not equivalent of a ransom as described by some anti-Iran figures in Britain.

Instead, Hunt said, that the failure to pay the long-overdue debt would damage relations between Iran and the UK.

“… this is not ransom money. This is a debt. An international court has said so. The defense secretary has said so. We should pay it because it is an irritant to relations,” said the Conservative member of the British parliament.

The comments come just before a planned meeting in London between UK Foreign Office officials and Iranian deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani as the two sides prepared to return to talks aimed at reviving a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

They also came on the 19th day of a hunger strike outside the Foreign Office by Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an Iranian-British journalist who has been sentenced to prison in Iran over involvement in anti-government activities.

Hunt said the UK government could use the opportunity of Bagheri’s visit to London to secure the release of Zaghari-Ratcliffe as part of broader discussions on bilateral issues between the two countries.

But despite the court ruling and request of officials and people, British government resists paying Iran’s debts and each time blames Iran for not observing international laws and the JCPOA deal while it itself is one of the major violators of the international laws.

British officials say, and have done for three years, that the equivalent sum could be paid to Iran in medicines, or that the Iranian foreign ministry could give an undertaking that the money would not be used on armaments. The UK post-Brexit, they add, is now in charge of its own sanctions policy.

The British should know this fact that historically Iranians have fought for their rights and they know it well how Iranians expelled the British troops from their land in the past and they will finally get back their money by using a language which suits the British like what the British have experienced in the past.

Iranians have never trusted the British and will never do it unless they pay Iran’s debts and show good will in the future to amend their negative picture which has been painted among the Iranians during the past centuries and especially during Pahlavi dynasty and they are better to put an end to their modern and civilized style of piracy of freezing the assets or imposing sanctions.

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