Britain’s official line on the super-tanker Grace 1 is fast unravelling. In yesterday’s proceedings in the House of Commons, a leading labour shadow minister fatally undermined the government’s position.
Responding to British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt’s official statement on the tankers issue, Fabian Hamilton, shadow minister for peace and disarmament, revealed that the US government had lobbied hard for the capture of Grace 1.
Quoting the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Hamilton said that the US had alerted the Spanish government 48 hours in advance of the Panamanian-flagged super-tanker’s passage through the Strait of Gibraltar.
Hamilton then dropped a bombshell. He revealed that the Gibraltar government introduced new legislation 36 hours in advance of Grace 1’s passage to shore up the legal position with a view to detaining the super-tanker carrying Iranian crude oil.
The new admission by a British MP has already fatally undermined the British government’s spurious claim to be acting on behalf of EU sanctions against Syria.
Not only had the EU failed to endorse the British action, but as Iran is not a member of the EU, the block’s laws and policies do not apply to it.
And that is if we accept the American and British claim that Grace 1’s final destination was the Banias oil refinery in Syria. Iran has denied the claims.
In addition Hamilton’s revelation that the so-called Gibraltar government had introduced “new” legislation to shore up its legal position completely demolishes the UK’s claim of legality and due process.
It is now clear that that the legal framework that Jeremy Hunt and his colleagues refer to was arbitrarily contrived and politically motivated.
Even in Britain it is widely believed that this whole charade is designed to conceal the real motivations behind the illegal seizure of the Grace 1: that is to support the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” policy on Iran and to further inflame tensions in the Persian Gulf.