Iran: Clerical Regime’s Piracy and Maritime Terrorism To Extort the International Community – a Decisive Policy Vis-à-Vis the Regime Is an Imperative

IRGC commander-in-chief visits IRGC naval forces to ensure their readiness for this piracy

In a brazen act of piracy, the Revolutionary Guards hijacked a South Korean ship in Persian Gulf waters and took it to the shores of Bandar Abbas yesterday, January 4, 2021. Two days earlier, on January 2, IRGC Commander-in-Chief Hossein Salami and IRGC Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri visited Abu Musa Island in preparation for this act of piracy. According to IRNA news agency on January 4, 2021, Salami said, “Today, we are here to assess and ensure our solid arrangements at sea and in the face of enemies who sometimes make arrogant and rhetorical threats so that, God willing, we will have a better understanding of the readiness of our Naval forces, who are at the desired level.”

Today, the state-run Vatan-e-Emruz daily, close to Khamenei’s faction, wrote in a front-page article titled, “We caught a thief”, acknowledging the real purpose of the piracy, and threatened further hijacking and terrorist acts. It wrote, “The seizure of this tanker in Persian Gulf waters sends a serious message to the South Korean government. A message that offers Seoul two options, either to choose to pay its long-standing debt to Tehran or (to compromise for the) security for its use of the Persian Gulf waterways in dealings with its Arab partners.”

Yet, the IRGC Naval Force ridiculously announced, “The South Korean vessel was heading to Korea from the Saudi port of Al-Jubail, was seized for repeated violations of Maritime Environmental Regulations in the Persian Gulf.” Subsequently, the spokesman for the clerical regime’s Foreign Ministry described the Korean Ship’s confiscation as a technical issue. He said, “The Islamic Republic of Iran, like other countries, is sensitive to parallel violations, especially pollution of the marine environment and deals with it within the framework of the law.

These preposterous remarks by the Revolutionary Guards and the regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs come as the power plants and industries affiliated with the IRGC and Khamenei’s offices are using fuel oil (Mazut) which has increased air pollution in Tehran to an alarming 500 index.

Once again, the Iranian Resistance draws the attention of the United Nations Security Council and its member states to the hijacking, piracy, and terrorist attacks on vessels, which is the typical method used by the clerical regime to extort the international community. Only a firm policy and the imposition of international sanctions can stop piracy and maritime terrorism by the religious and terrorist dictatorship ruling in Iran.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
January 5, 2021