Request made before Iran launches missile swarm against Israel
The government of India is described as “in contact with Tehran through diplomatic channels” to ensure the safety of 17 Indians on a Portuguese-flagged container ship captured earlier this weekend by Iran near the Strait of Hormuz.
An official source told Spanish news agency EFE: “We are aware that control of the cargo ship MSC Aries has been taken by Iran. We know that there are 17 Indian citizens on board.” Focus now is on ensuring their “safety, well-being and speedy release”.
EFE’s report was filed hours before Iran launched an unprecedented swarm of drones, missiles and rockets against Israel, which numerous governments (Portugal’s included) have condemned, calling for ‘contention’.
The agency explains that “India and Iran have had stable diplomatic relations since 1950, although economic relations are dominated by New Delhi’s imports of Iranian oil”.
As for the container ship, MSC Aries, it sails under a Portuguese-flag (registered in the Autonomous Region of Madeira), and is owned by London-based Zodiac Maritime Limited, part of the Zodiac group, owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.
It was due to this Israeli connection that commandos from Iran’s paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps rappelled down from a helicopter onto the ship in the early hours of yesterday.
The incident followed the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, which left seven members of the Revolutionary Guard dead. Iran promised to retaliate, and the United States was aware that retaliation could come this weekend – which it did in the form of the missiles launched at Israeli territory last night.
Today, the situation appears to be that Iran has said their attack ‘is over’ and they ‘do not wish to continue it’.
The fate of 17 Indians and the MSC Aries is the least of today’s problems. World leaders are all appealing for ‘restraint’, with one (Colombia’s Gustavo Petro) suggesting: “we’re now in the prelude to World War III precisely when humanity should rebuild its economy towards the rapid goal of decarbonisation.
“The support of the US, in practice, for a genocide, has ignited the world. Everyone knows how wars start, no one knows how they end. If only the people of Israel were high enough, like their ancestors, to stop the madness of their ruler.”
A special meeting of the United Nations Security Council, requested by Israel (which generally condemns the UN) is being held in Malta later today. ND
Source material: LUSA/ Aljazeera/ Times of Israel
