InevitableSwing [none/use name]


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Cake day: March 19th, 2022

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  • CBS News - Only 3 tankers - 2 linked to Iran - seen transiting Strait of Hormuz as tension soars. Only three fuel tankers — two of which are under U.S. sanctions over ties to Iran’s illicit fuel shipments — appeared to be making their way through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday as the U.S. and Iran exchanged strikes and after Tehran threatened to completely close the key waterway.

    The liquified petroleum gas tanker Solix and crude oil tanker Berg 1 are both under U.S. sanctions. Public data reported by the MarineTraffic.com website showed both vessels in the Strait of Hormuz Tuesday morning. A third vessel, which is not sanctioned but has exhibited suspicious behavior consistent with ship-to-ship fuel transfers since the start of the conflict, was also broadcasting its location in the strait.

    The Benin-flagged Berg 1 and the third vessel, an oil-chemical tanker operating under the Marshall Islands flag, were both heading out of the Persian Gulf loaded with cargo along the northern route that Iran has demanded all commercial vessels use, while the Equatorial Guinea-flagged Solix was tracked heading west into the Persian Gulf after leaving a port in China.

    While only those three tankers were visible, it is possible that other ships could be trying to use a southern route through the narrow strait, close to Oman’s coast, with their location transponders switched off. Iran has attacked three vessels this week trying to use that route.

    On Monday, the head of the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization said approximately 600 seafarers remained trapped in the Persian Gulf and surrounding waters as U.S.-Iran hostilities renewed.