US piling pressure on Iran
Fog of war hangs over tanker attacks
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/14/politics/us-iran-tankers-diplomacy-warfare-pompeo/index.html
2019-06-14 08:44:00Z
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The man accused of killing 51 people in mass shootings at two New Zealand mosques in March has pleaded not guilty to terrorism, murder and attempted murder.
Brenton Tarrant, who appeared via video link from a maximum security prison in Auckland, smirked but did not speak and showed little other emotion as his lawyer entered not guilty pleas on multiple counts.
Audible gasps could be heard in the courtroom as the not guilty pleas were entered.
The 28-year-old Australian man is accused in the March 15 shooting rampage at two mosques in Christchurch. A trial date of May 4 next year was set by Justice Cameron Mander at the High Court in Christchurch.
If found guilty, Tarrant could become the first person in New Zealand to receive a sentence of life without parole. Previously, the longest-ever sentence in the country was 30 years without parole for a triple murder.
In the courtroom, 80 survivors and family members of those killed viewed the proceedings. Sixty others watched by closed-circuit television in an overflow room.
Justice Mander said the court had reviewed reports on the defendant's mental health and that "No issues arise regarding the defendant's fitness to plead, to instruct council and to stand trial. Therefore, a fitness hearing is not required."
Outside the courtroom, a man reportedly speaking in support of white supremacy was escorted away by police, according to The Associated Press. A 33-year-old man was also arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after he "played Nazi music and [made] racist remarks outside the court," the New Zealand Herald reports.
CNN's Devan Cole contributed to this report.
The apparent attack on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday represents a dramatic escalation in regional and international tensions. Coming just one month and one day after an attack on four other oil tankers in the same area, oil prices have spiked upward in fear of what might happen next.
What's going on here? Blame Iran.
The United Arab Emirates and Saudis might want a United States showdown with Iran but they would not risk jeopardizing the U.S. relationship by conducting a false flag attack. Moreover, the damage to the two tankers in this latest incident is suggestive of a torpedo attack: video shows at least one of the tankers on fire with waterline damage amidships. Iran has an array of means for such an attack, including attack submarines of various sizes, disguised fishing and passenger boats, and military fast boats.
Regardless, this attack fits comfortably with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps penchant for thinly deniable action. Suffering deep financial losses due to escalating U.S. sanctions, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps wants to pressure the international community into restraining the Trump administration's maximum pressure strategy. Iran will hope that this attack is sufficiently calibrated to avoid clear evidence of its culpability and thus avoid U.S. retaliation. In that, it is designed as a halfway measure between doing nothing and inviting U.S. retaliation by overtly attempting to shut down the Strait of Hormuz.
But Iran's escalation should not be seen solely through the prism of this attack. Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei has made veiled but apparent threats of Iranian resistance to the Trump administration's pressure. And an Iranian-enabled missile attack on Saudi Arabia this week illustrates that the Revolutionary Guards is escalating. This sits squarely within Iran's theocratic penchant for resistance against great odds (look up the Battle of Karbala).
The question is how the U.S. and its allies should respond.
The measure of this aggression will require some kind of significant response. Iran is now actively disrupting international oil markets and free passage of an arterial trade route. That cannot stand. But rightly neither is there much appetite in the U.S. or the region for a war.
I suspect what we will now see is a significantly increased naval presence by the U.S. and its allies to protect transit routes. Iranian forces and fishing vessels (due to the threat of disguised attacks) will likely be warned to keep distance from other vessels or face being sunk. We should expect them to test that warning, and for allied vessels to fire on them in response. Hopefully they will get the message and go back to port.
In terms of naval air-power, the U.S. currently has only an amphibious ready group in the area, so expect one of the carriers now in the Atlantic to be redeployed back to the Gulf.
Two oil tankers were damaged in a suspected attack off the Gulf of Oman early Thursday, prompting the rescue of dozens of crew members.
The U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet told Reuters it was assisting two tankers in the Gulf of Oman after receiving two distress calls. Details of the incident were unclear, but one of the operators made an unconfirmed report that a torpedo had hit its ship, Reuters reported.
"We are aware of the reported attack on tankers in the Gulf of Oman. U.S. Naval Forces in the region received two separate distress calls at 6:12 a.m. local time and a second one at 7:00 a.m.,'' Joshua Frey of the Fifth Fleet said. The Fleet did not blame anyone for the attack.
One of the vessels involved was identified as the MT Front Altair, a Marshall Islands-flagged but Norwegian-owned crude oil tanker carrying naphtha, a petrochemical product, to Japan.
International Tanker Management, which operates the MT Front Altair said an explosion had caused a fire onboard. The firm told the Associated Press the incident is still being investigated and it was unclear what caused the explosion. Its 23 crew members were evacuated by the nearby South Korean-based Hyundai Dubai Vessel and are now safe, the firm said.
Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency, IRNA, claimed the Front Altair had sunk, but the Norwegian shipping firm Frontline said it was still afloat.
The Iranian Students News Agency tweeted unverified images of the Front Altair on fire.
The other vessel, the Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous, reportedly carrying methanol, sustained damage on its hull starboard side. 21 sailors were evacuated, and one was slightly injured.
A U.S. Navy official told Fox News that the USS Bainbridge, a guided-missile destroyer which had been in port in Oman in recent days, rescued 21 sailors from the Kokuka.
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The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations -- an arm of the British Navy -- had put out an alert earlier and urged "extreme caution" amid U.S.-Iran tensions.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, described the incidents as "suspicious" and called for regional talks. His comments came as Ayatollah Khamenei was meeting Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister, for talks in Iran.
The area of the explosions is near the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic route through which 20 percent of global oil consumption passes from Middle East producers. Oil prices rose by about 4 percent in the wake of the latest incidents, while the tanker association INTERTANKO said that there were growing worries for the safety of ships sailing through the strait.
"Following two attacks on Member vessels this morning, I am extremely worried about the safety of our crews going through the Strait of Hormuz," Paolo d’Amico, chairman of INTERTANKO, said in a statement.
"We need to remember that some 30% of the world’s (seaborne) crude oil passes through the Straits. If the waters are becoming unsafe, the supply to the entire Western world could be at risk."
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UAE ACCUSES 'STATE ACTOR' FOR TANK ATTACKS, BUT STOPS JUST SHORT OF IRAN
Thursday's incident comes a month after the U.S. accused Iran of attacking ships off the coast of United Arab Emirates. The UAE told the U.N. Security Council a "state actor" was most likely behind the attacks but stopped short of blaming Iran.
The timing of Thursday's incident was especially sensitive as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was visiting Iran as an interlocutor for President Donald Trump to ease tensions between Washington and Tehran.
On Wednesday, after talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Abe warned that any "accidental conflict" amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. must be avoided at all costs.
While meeting with Abe on Thursday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that while Tehran doesn't want an atomic bomb, "America could not do anything" to stop Iran if it did.
Khamenei was quoted earlier saying that Iran "will in no way repeat" negotiations with the U.S. amid tension over its unraveling nuclear deal with world powers.
Khamenei's official website quoted him as telling Abe: "I don't regard Trump as deserving any exchange of messages and have no response for him and will give no response."
Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and Chris Irvine contributed to this report.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.