Iran, spectacular US humanitarian blitz

released 13 Iranians kidnapped by pirates

NEW YORK – With a spectacular blitz the US Navy freed 13 Iranians who had been prisoners of Somali pirates for more than a month. It is a coup de théâtre, which takes place just at the moment when Iran had threatened the United States with military action, if they had returned one of their aircraft carriers to the Persian Gulf.

In the midst of the escalation of tension between Washington and Tehran, the “humanitarian” blow of the Americans came as a surprise. The rescue operation of the 13 Iranian fishermen took place in the Gulf of Oman. The protagonist was the aircraft carrier John Stennis, who found himself only eight miles from an attack by Somali pirates against a merchant ship flying the flag of the Bahamas, the Sushine.

The aircraft carrier intervened with its artillery, then the USS Kidd destroyer came into action, whose sailors boarded the pirate ship. In a few minutes the attack ended with the capture of 15 Somali pirates, transported by helicopter to the USS Kidd where they were placed under arrest.

On board their ship, the US military found the 13 Iranian fishermen, prisoners for more than a month. The Iranians were able to recover their boat, were given supplies and fuel, and were able to return to their home port, in Chah Bahar. Iran has hailed the action as a “positive humanitarian act”: this was defined by the spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Ramin Mehmanparas, using unusually relaxing tones towards Washington.

The irony of fate meant that the resounding rescue occurred at 210 nautical miles from the coast of Iran, just as that area was crossed by acute political-military tensions. On Tuesday, the Iranian Defense Minister had threatened to attack precisely the aircraft carrier Stennis, wary of returning to the waters of the Persian Gulf by crossing the Strait of Hormuz.

Threats from Tehran, also reiterated by a general brigadier, have raised fears for the feasibility of one of the crucial routes for the transit of oil from the Persian Gulf to consumer countries. Now who knows that the new role “liberator” of the aircraft carrier, duly publicized by the White House, does not become the occasion to probe the possibility of less turbulent relations.

(07 January 2012)