We'll Call You On One Ship and Raise You On Two

“This maritime security framework [patrol aircraft operating in international airspace monitoring the situation within the Strait of Hormuz] will enable nations to provide escort to their flagged vessels while taking advantage of the cooperation of participating nations for coordination and enhanced maritime domain awareness and surveillance."
U.S. Central Command

A UH-1Y Venom helicopter takes off from the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer in the Strait of Hormuz, July 18, 2019. (US Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Dalton Swanbeck/Released)

"Our first and most important responsibility is to make sure that we get a solution to the issue to do with the current ship, make sure other British-flagged ships are safe to operate in these waters and then look at the wider picture."
"We are going to be looking at a series of options …We will be speaking with our colleagues, our international allies, to see what can actually be done."
Tobias Ellwood, Ministry of Defense, Great Britain 

"[The seized tanker] risked maritime safety [in the Strait of Hormuz]."
“We are required by regulations to investigate the issue … the duration of the investigation depends on the level of cooperation by the involved parties."
"[All 23 crew members aboard the ship are] safe and in good health in Bandar Abbas port."
Allahmorad Afifipour, head, Ports and Maritime Organization, Hormozgan Province, Iran

This photo issued July 19, 2019 shows the British oil tanker Stena Impero, which is believed to have been captured by Iran. (Stena Bulk via AP)

The slick video posted by Iran was not by any means an impromptu filming of an unplanned incident. It was obviously a vital part of a coordinated reciprocal response to the detention of the Iranian supertanker in the Mediterranean around Gibraltar. This, for the suspicion that its circuitous route aroused as it appeared to be heading to a European Union-forbidden destination, at a port in Syria. As it does all nefariously sinister events it is seen to be engaging in, Tehran denied any such intention, demanding its ship be released immediately and warning of consequences to ensue.

Now it is Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt who is warning of consequences: "We are not looking at military options. We are looking at a diplomatic way to resolve this situation. There will be serious consequences if we are not able to resolve it quickly"; 'it' being the release of the second British tanker apprehended by the Iranian Republican Guard Corps. The Mesdar had been intercepted by IRG speedboats almost simultaneously to the Stena Impero, but permitted release.

The Stena Impero is being held by Iran at its Bandar Abbas port, awaiting interrogation of the crew. Port officials claim the tanker had failed to respond to appeals from a fishing boat it had damaged in a marine collision, refusing to stop to offer assistance, representing a violation of maritime laws that Iran is utterly appalled at and will not stand for. Such are the conditions that 'consequences' require.
The ship owner, on the other hand, claims its ship was in international waters when it was "attacked by unidentified small crafts and a helicopter". 

The ensuing video represents a duly dramatic choreograph of small Guard boats surrounding the tanker moving through the strait, as a military helicopter hovers, several men in IRGC uniform and wearing black masks rappelling onto the ship. There were an estimated two cameras used in shooting the video; one from the vantage of a vessel and one from the helicopter, showing the fatigue-clad men preparing to slide down a rope onto the surrounded ship.

An Iranian patrol vessel had been radioed by British warship HMS Montrose in warning against boarding the Sena Impero, according to maritime security firm Dryad Global, through radio messages.

This image grab taken from a video provided by Iran's Revolutionary Guard official website via SEPAH News on July 20, 2019, allegedly shows Revolutionary Guard Corps preparing to board the British-flagged tanker Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz. - Iran ignored mounting European appeals on Saturday to release a British-flagged tanker as London denounced a "dangerous move" and summoned a senior diplomat of the Islamic republic.  (HO/AFP/Getty Images)

Five men were seen to descend to the deck of the Stena Impero while an off-camera voice shouts "God is Great!" When the U.S. failed to react after its drone was shot down close to the waterway a month earlier, it no doubt emboldened Tehran to continue its anti-sanctions acting-out manoeuvres. Iran's Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei right out boasted that the Stena Impero interdiction was "reciprocal action" for the Iranian tanker Grace 1's apprehension, going on to denounce the "illegitimate economic war" being waged on Iran.

There are reports that The RGC has raised an Iranian flag over the Sena Impero, another poke in Britain's sensitive eyeball. London now warns all British shipping away from the Strait of Hormuz where a fifth of the world's oil passes through the Persian Gulf. One British MP stood up in the House of Commons to fault his government for not having taken proactive preventive action knowing that Tehran was planning 'consequences'. When the U.S. offered 'assets' in defence of British shipping, the U.K. politely declined.

"Our action in the Persian Gulf is to uphold international rules", wrote Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking of the interception of the Iranian tanker as "piracy". Britain, he tweeted should "cease being an accessory" to American sanctions against Iran. The Gibraltar Supreme Court has granted the right to continue to detain the Grace 1 for another 30 days while investigating its destination in delivery of the oil it carries.

As for Britain, its UN mission has written to the Security Council with a copy to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in an appeal to its authority to issue a condemnation of Iran.

"The ship was exercising the lawful right of transit passage in an international strait as provided for under international law. International law requires that the right of transit passage shall not be impeded, and therefore the Iranian action constitutes illegal interference."
"Current tensions are extremely concerning, and our priority is to de-escalate. We do not seek confrontation with Iran. But it is unacceptable and highly escalatory to threaten shipping going about its legitimate business through internationally recognized transit corridors."

This image grab taken from a video provided by Iran's Revolutionary Guard official website via SEPAH News on July 20, 2019, allegedly shows Revolutionary Guard Corps boarding the British-flagged tanker Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz.  (HO/AFP/Getty Images)