2011-02-19

Iran to send two ships through the Suez Canal. Who's provocating? Iran or Israel and the US?

The fact that Iran is sending two warships through the Suez Canal is spilling a lot of electronic ink and creating a lot of noise on bubble vision: Israel is calling this a provocation and the US are monitoring the situation:
Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Egypt approved a request from Iran to send two naval ships through the Suez Canal on their way to Syria, a move that has ratcheted up Middle East tensions and driven oil prices higher as Israel calls it a “provocation.”
[...]
The ships will go to Syria, where they will anchor “for a few days” after a trip through the canal that is “routine according to international law,” Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said, citing the country’s ambassador to Syria, Ahmad Mousavi.
[...]
The U.S. is “monitoring” Iran’s plan to send warships through the Suez Canal, White House press secretary Jay Carney said today. Iran doesn’t show “responsible behavior in the region, which is always a concern to us,” Carney told reporters traveling on Air Force One to an appearance by President Barack Obama in Portland, Oregon.
[...]
The passage of the Iranian vessels would be a “provocation” to Israel, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said two days ago. He warned the international community that Israel would not “ignore forever” such acts.

After the Egyptian approval for the ships’ passage, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said by telephone that he had nothing to add to what Lieberman had said on the issue.

Iran hasn’t sent warships through the canal in “many years,” Lieberman said yesterday.
To that, I have two points to make:
  1. (From Wikipedia) Under international treaty, the Suez Canal may be used "in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag."[7]
  2. The two biggest warmongers on the planet since WWII have been the US and Israel. The US has been sending ships all over the globe and has military bases in hundreds of locations outside their territory. Israel is destroying ancient cultures and waging religious wars. I find it a bit rich that these two countries, protest and think of "provocation" and require "monitoring". 

1 comment:

Atlanta Roofing said...

No one could ever stop the Iranian naval vessels from transiting the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea en route to Syria as long as it gets approval and is allowed to do so by the waterway's authority.