ABNA24 - - The noisy US President Donald Trump has recently made controversial remarks about the American blockade against Iran that is a kind of admission to a crime. He admitted that the US Navy has acted like "pirates" in implementing the blockade on the Iranian ports.
Describing how the Navy is carrying out his orders to blockade Iranian ports, Trump compared the American forces' performance to pirates. “We seized the ship, the cargo, and the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” Trump said Friday night, referring to the interception of an Iranian vessel. “We’re sort of like pirates, but we're not play games.”
The US began its purported naval blockade of Iranian ports last month after talks between the two sides collapsed. According to Trump, the U.S. blockade targets Iranian ships and any other vessel that has paid levies to Iran. In an April 12 post on his Truth Social website, Trump said the U.S. Navy would block “any ship that tries to enter or exit the Strait of Hormuz.” He added that the blockade would remain in place until Iran opens the strait to all traffic.
But multiple reports indicate that the naval blockade has largely failed, with Iran managing to slip many ships past it. An analysis of data from the MarineTraffic platform shows that since the start of US's claimed blockade of Iranian ports, at least 53 vessels, those arriving from or heading to Iranian ports, or flying the Iranian flag, including 11 on the US sanctions list, have managed to break through. So despite Trump’s claims, the naval blockade of Iran has so far failed to fully halt the country’s maritime shipping.
Trump confesses to crime
By calling the US Navy’s actions “piracy,” Trump has essentially confessed to a crime. Piracy has a long history, dating back to the 13th century BC. Along with the slave trade, it was among the first international crimes to which universal jurisdiction applied. But in recent times, new forms of this maritime offense have drawn global attention.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) defines piracy as boarding any ship on the high seas with the intent to commit theft or any other crime, and with the intent or likelihood of using force to carry out the act.
In fact, any seizure of ships on the high seas requires a UN resolution. But Trump has been seizing Iranian vessels in international waters without Security Council authorization, a clear-cut case of piracy, and one he has essentially admitted to. The US Navy’s operations against Iranian ships on the high seas have no legal basis or authorization, relying solely on force.
Furthermore, under US domestic law, piracy is a grave crime punishable by life imprisonment. Some British experts have also stressed this point, calling Trump’s reference to “piracy” against Iranian ships an admission of guilt, and urging Congress to oversee his actions.
Trump is right!
Experts have also reacted to Trump’s comments about piracy against Iranian ships. CNN analyst Adam MacLeod said, “Trump started a war that sent inflation skyrocketing, and he’s effectively losing it. We’ve massacred an entire school full of children, and now we’re turning our own military into pirates, because you can’t defend the war against Iran, so you’ve resorted to humiliating rhetoric.”
Prominent British journalist and broadcaster Mehdi Hasan also weighed in on Trump’s piracy remarks against Iran, saying: “The one good thing about Trump, the one thing!, is that he sometimes says out loud what we all know is true but never expect a US president to admit. Last night, Trump said: ‘We’re sort of like pirates."
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