America's threat to interdict ships that "paid the tolls" was walked back for a reason

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی
The legal framework (UNCLOS)The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which reflects customary international law, is unambiguous:
  • Article 92: Ships on the high seas are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the flag state (the country whose flag they fly). No other state may interfere except in narrowly defined cases.

  • Article 110 (Right of Visit): A warship may board a foreign vessel only if there are reasonable grounds to suspect:
    • Piracy
    • Slave trading
    • Unauthorized broadcasting
    • The ship is stateless (no flag) or falsely claiming a nationality
Boarding or seizing a properly flagged foreign vessel on the high seas without flag-state consent (or a specific treaty/UN Security Council authorization) violates these rules. It is not permitted for sanctions enforcement, cargo disputes, or general law-enforcement purposes unless the flag state agrees.

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“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote in a Sunday Truth Social post, ahead of Centcom’s announcement.

“THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION, and Leaders of Countries, especially the United States of America, will never be extorted,” he said in the post. “I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran.”

Centcom said the blockade will be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations” and that it would allow ships traveling between non-Iranian ports to still enter the Strait of Hormuz.





 
What “interdict vessels on the high seas” specifically means
  • “High seas” / “International Waters”: This refers to areas beyond any country’s territorial waters (generally more than 12 nautical miles from shore), where freedom of navigation applies under international law. It is not limited to the Strait of Hormuz itself; the U.S. Navy could act globally against any ship.

  • “Interdict”: In naval/military terms, this is a standard operation to intercept, stop, disrupt, board, search, divert, or seize a vessel. It can involve:
    • Hailing the ship by radio and ordering it to stop.
    • Deploying boarding teams (Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure or VBSS) to inspect documents, cargo, and payment records.
    • Diverting the ship to a U.S.-controlled port or allied facility.
    • Using force (up to and including capture or sinking) if the vessel resists.
 
CBHype said:
Yes, countries who have paid a fee to Iran.
Click to expand...


No, SHIPS.

Interdicting a foreign-flagged vessel on the high seas without the consent of the flag nation is illegal.

Paying a fee to Iran is none of these exceptions:

A warship may board a foreign vessel only if there are reasonable grounds to suspect:
  • Piracy
  • Slave trading
  • Unauthorized broadcasting
  • The ship is stateless (no flag) or falsely claiming a nationality
 
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said:
No, SHIPS.

Interdicting a foreign-flagged vessel on the high seas without the consent of the flag nation is illegal.

Paying a fee to Iran is none of these exceptions:

A warship may board a foreign vessel only if there are reasonable grounds to suspect:
  • Piracy
  • Slave trading
  • Unauthorized broadcasting
  • The ship is stateless (no flag) or falsely claiming a nationality
Click to expand...
Iran is weak. this is to show them how weak they are. they are too weak to stop it.

All they can do is cry to the actual powers of the world for help
 
Iran acts like a bully state: too cowardly to square up with the strong, but very willing to terrorize the weak and keep its own people under the boot.

And this thread’s resident genius wants to pretend Iran is not censoring the internet, or that we somehow cannot know whether the blackout is real.

We do know. It is well documented - Iran’s traffic collapsing to effectively zero during shutdowns, Iran is now on day 45 of an ongoing blackout, and just yesterday an Iranian official said there is still no timetable for restoring public internet because of “special wartime conditions”
 
zymurgy said:
Iran is weak. this is to show them how weak they are. they are too weak to stop it.

All they can do is cry to the actual powers of the world for help
Click to expand...
So what does that say about the US that despite wanting to they cannot stop Iran from bullying and keeping the Strait closed and instead the US is pushing, threatening the EU countries and NATO to do it?
 
zymurgy said:
Iran acts like a bully state: too cowardly to square up with the strong, but very willing to terrorize the weak and keep its own people under the boot.

And this thread’s resident genius wants to pretend Iran is not censoring the internet, or that we somehow cannot know whether the blackout is real.

We do know. It is well documented - Iran’s traffic collapsing to effectively zero during shutdowns, Iran is now on day 45 of an ongoing blackout, and just yesterday an Iranian official said there is still no timetable for restoring public internet because of “special wartime conditions”
Click to expand...
Oh, the irony....
 
zymurgy said:
Iran is weak. this is to show them how weak they are. they are too weak to stop it.

All they can do is cry to the actual powers of the world for help
Click to expand...

We need not cry to anyone. The effete Westerners who believe in such things as "international law" will do our work without any effort on our part.
 
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