Beijing, 28 May (Xinhua) -- Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps detained two Greek oil tankers in the Gulf on 27 May. The media speculated that Iran's move appeared to be retaliation for Greece's previous assistance to the United States in "confiscating" Iranian crude oil loaded on an oil tanker in the Mediterranean. This is not the first time that Iran has detained other countries' tankers, as long as someone is detaining Iranian oil tankers, Iran has never been ruthless and has always carried out tit-for-tat seizure activities.
In April, the Greek government "confiscated" oil from an oil tanker, the LANA, because it was Iranian oil. The Lana, which carries the Iranian flag and is operated by a Russian company, was carrying 115,000 tons of crude oil to Turkey. According to AFP, Greece's move was at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Greek government seized the ship and planned to deliver the crude oil it transported to the U.S. government, but the U.S. government declined to comment on the seizure of Iranian oil.
(Patrol boat of the Iranian Navy)
Since the outbreak of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, relations between Iran and western countries, especially the United States, have been very tense, and the two sides have once quarreled with each other. Although relations between the two sides eased in the late Obama administration, since the beginning of the Trump administration, the relationship between the United States and Iran has deteriorated again. Over the years, the United States has not only taken the lead in imposing economic sanctions and trade embargoes on Iran, but also directly dispatched armed forces to assassinate various senior Iranian officials and military generals, the most famous of which is the assassination of General Suleimani, senior commander of iran's Revolutionary Guards, by the US military on January 3, 2020. On November 27 of the same year, Iran's top nuclear physicist Fakhrizadeh was assassinated on a highway outside the capital Tehran, and although the incident was believed to be the work of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, the United States provided technical support to Israel behind it.
(The giant tanker "Grace 1" seized by the British in Gibraltar)
Assassinating Iran's military and technological elites is a way for the United States to weaken Iran, and to really contain Iran, it is still necessary to find a way to do it economically, and Iran mainly relies on oil exports to maintain economic operations, so the seizure of Iranian oil tankers has become the general means of containing Iran. On July 4, 2019, the Uk seized a 300,000-ton Iranian tanker Grace 1 (translated as "Elegance 1") in gibraltar waters and planned to hand it over to the United States. Upon learning the news, the Iranian side immediately seized a number of British oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, and finally forced the British to return the seized Iranian oil tankers. In January 2021, Iran also seized a South Korean tanker in the Strait of Hormuz after the South Korean government froze Iranian assets in South Korea at the request of the United States.
(General Sulaimani, senior commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps)
After the US military killed General Suleimani with a special Hellfire missile that year, Iran carried out missile bombing on the ASSAD air base of the US military in Iraq, causing a certain degree of damage to the base. The United States, on the other hand, has been very restrained against Iran, and has not even retaliated against Iran's missile bombing operations. However, since then, the United States has changed its strategy, instead of instigating other countries to come forward, seize Iranian oil tankers, and exert pressure on Iran in the form of economic blockade, and Britain, South Korea, and Greece have successively become accomplices in US economic sanctions against Iran. However, it is clear that the dog legs of the United States are not good, especially in the face of Iran, the famous "thorn head", after all, Iran is not even afraid of the United States, how can it be afraid of these countries?
(How narrow is the Strait of Hormuz, the throat of the world's oil shipments?) The narrowest place can block the sea with a 155 mm howitzer! ）
Although Iran is inferior to the United States in terms of overall national strength, Iran has a clear geographical advantage because it controls the only export to the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz. The Persian Gulf is known as the world's oil valve, and almost all the world has to buy oil from the Persian Gulf coastal countries, which means that all countries have tankers that need to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Therefore, if any country obeys the command of the United States and seizes Iran's oil tankers, then Iran can seize the country's oil tankers near its doorstep, and if one does not work, it will deduct two, and if two cannot, it will detain four... The end result is a final compromise between the two sides. Because after all, oil is still needed, without oil, the economy of any country will be affected, and the more developed the country, the greater the dependence on oil.
(Iran's military power is far from comparable to that of the United States, but it is more than enough to blockade the Persian Gulf and seize passing tankers.)
That year Iran before and after a total of 4 British oil tankers, and finally the United Kingdom had to release the detained Iranian tanker, the same time Greece seized 1 Iranian oil tanker, Iran seized 2 Greek oil tankers at one time, in the context of this year's Russian-Ukrainian war, Europe's energy supply was already tight, Greece seized Iranian oil tankers, but also plans to transfer oil to the United States, not Greece itself to retain, in the end it is not flattering: neither can get compensation from the United States, but also offended Iran, resulting in the seizure of their own oil tankers, In the end, it is likely that it will still compromise with Iran, and it will become an international laughingstock, so why bother?