JAKARTA: Indonesia’s coast guard said on Tuesday it had seized an Iranian-flagged supertanker suspected of illegally transferring crude oil and manipulating its automatic tracking system.
An Indonesian Coast Guard patrol vessel KN Pulau Marore spotted the Iranian-flagged Very Large Crude Carrier MT Arman 114 near the North Natuna Sea on Friday as it conducted oil transshipment with the Cameroon-flagged MT S Tinos.
The ships were caught in Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone and had no permit to transfer oil. Both tried to evade inspection by escaping to the exclusive zone of Malaysia, officials said.
“The two ships did not respond to communication and tried to avoid the inspection process by escaping while the hose was still attached (the transshipment process was still ongoing),” the coast guard said in a statement. “They were chased immediately until they entered the Malaysian EEZ.”
The 330-meter-long MT Arman was carrying 272,569 tons of light crude oil, or 2.3 million barrels, worth an estimated $303 million.
The KN Pulau Marore was allowed to enter Malaysian territory under an Association of Southeast Asian Nations coast guard cooperation agreement and chased the vessels with the help of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.
As the ships separated, and apparently tried to escape in different directions, efforts focused on the Iranian one, which was suspected of being the oil supplier.
When the MT Arman 114 was impounded, Indonesian officers said it had tried to manipulate its tracking system.
“The MT Arman 114 committed an unlawful act … by turning off the automatic information system (AIS), AIS spoofing (AIS data of the MT Arman indicated it was in the Red Sea),” the Indonesian Coast Guard said, adding that the vessel had no port clearance and is also suspected of illegally dumping oily wastewater.
The coast guard said they had detained 29 people aboard the ship, including its Egyptian captain, as well as Iranian and Syrian crew members.
Tankers carrying oil from countries hit by Western sanctions have been spotted in the areas of the Strait of Malacca in the west, through the Singapore Strait, to the waters of the South China Sea in the east.
In 2021, Indonesian authorities impounded two Iranian and Panamanian tankers off the western shore of Borneo Island. The vessels were reportedly conducting a ship-to-ship fuel transfer with their hulls covered to conceal their identities.
Indonesia seizes Iranian supertanker over alleged illegal oil transfer, GPS spoofing
https://arab.news/mfmd7
Indonesia seizes Iranian supertanker over alleged illegal oil transfer, GPS spoofing
- MT Arman was carrying 272,569 tons of oil worth $303m
- Coast guard says vessel manipulated AIS to appear being located in Red Sea
Trump insists he struck Iran on his own terms
- “We are now a nation divided between those who want to fight wars for Israel and those who just want peace and to be able to afford their bills and health insurance,” Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X.
- Rubio himself doubled down on Tuesday after meeting with US House and Senate members, while insisting that “No, I told you this had to happen anyway”
WASHINGTON, United States: President Donald Trump and his team scrambled Tuesday to reclaim the narrative on why he decided to attack Iran, after his top diplomat suggested the US struck only after learning of an imminent Israeli strike.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio alarmed Democrats — who say only Congress can declare war — as well as many of Trump’s MAGA supporters on Monday when he said: “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.”
“We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio told reporters.
Administration officials quickly backpedalled, insisting Trump authorized the strikes because Tehran was not seriously negotiating an accord on limiting its nuclear ambitions, and the United States needed to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities.
“No, Marco Rubio Didn’t Claim That Israel Dragged Trump into War with Iran,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted Tuesday on X.
At an Oval Office meeting later with Germany’s chancellor, Trump went further, saying that “Based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they (Iran) were going to attack first. And I didn’t want that to happen.”
“So, if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.”
- Had to happen? -
Rubio himself doubled down on Tuesday after meeting with US House and Senate members, while insisting that “No, I told you this had to happen anyway.”
“The president made a decision. The decision he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide... behind this ability to conduct an attack.”
Critics seized on the muddied messaging to accuse Trump of precipitating the country into a war without a clear rationale, without informing Congress — and without a clear idea of how it might end.
They noted that just two weeks ago, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed Trump again in Washington to take a hard line, in their seventh meeting since Trump’s return to power last year.
Some Republican allies rallied behind the president, with Senator Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, insisting that “No one pushes or drags Donald Trump anywhere.”
“He acts in the vital national security interest of the United States,” Cotton told the “Fox & Friends” morning show.
But as crucial US midterm elections approach that could see Republicans lose their congressional majority, Trump risks shedding supporters who had welcomed his pledge to end foreign military interventions.
“We are now a nation divided between those who want to fight wars for Israel and those who just want peace and to be able to afford their bills and health insurance,” Marjorie Taylor Greene, a top former Trump ally and a major figure in the populist and isolationist hard right, posted on X.
