The big thing at the moment is the Iran tanker crisis. As I've stated on here before I have no real idea what's going on and I think it's difficult to make judgements about things you're so far removed from. These events are all happening far out at sea and are taking place in the murky world of international power politics.
Last night however I did my due diligence and began, belatedly, to try and read as much as I could about the situation and the surrounding factors. I'm still none the wiser in many ways, but I do feel I'm at least edging a little closer to an understanding.
As a Brit I'm very wary of us getting dragged further into conflict. We tend to get a bad rap, we tend to be the very public bad guys. However, I'd really like to know why we're always so front and centre in these things. Why are we enforcing EU sanctions by essentially impounding the Iranian tanker Grace 1?
Where are all the other EU countries on this? The story goes that the Iranian tanker was taking oil to Syria. I'm presuming they were doing this by sailing through the Mediterranean. Is this common for Iranian vessels to be sailing back and forth through the Mediterranean? Are the UK the sole authority when it comes to patrolling these routes?
Again, I have no real idea about such things, but I'd like to know why it's our job to enforce EU sanctions against Syria and why we're consequently facing the backlash from Iran. Iran are portrayed as an isolated pariah state, but it seems they're far from isolated. With strong ties to China and other countries, who in turn seem quite pally with the EU at present. I don't want to get too conspiratorial about all this, but I'm very sceptical that things are entirely as they're portrayed.
Our actions in regard Syria may be in "Britain's interest", but I very much doubt they're in Britain's interest.
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