International Shia News Agency

IRNA/ Gulf of Aden piracy due to some countries’ incompetence:Captain

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- Lieutenant Commander of domestically manufactured Iranian Jamaran Destroyer Captain Khalil Farhadi said here Sunday the reason for occurrence of piracy in Gulf of Aden is some regional countries’ incompetence in dealing with the problem.

“Some 12 million liters of crude oil is transferred through Bab-el-Mandeb and the Somalia coastal waters to four continents of Europe, America, Asia, and Africa by huge oil tankers each day,” Captain Farhadi told IRNA.

“More than 40% of Asia’s liquidated natural gas (LNG) is transferred through this sea path according to the latest statistics, while 65,000 large and small ships, mainly carrying import and export goods, in addition to a huge number of fishing and private boats pass through Bab-el-Mandeb and the Gulf of Aden annually ” he added.

He said that ever since 1991 some countries have practically observed no effective control over most parts of their countries’ coastal waters in that region and although they have been engaged with the pirates, they have not been able to resolve the problem.

Captain Farhadi said that the pirates in that region who are well organized and active in an over 500 square nautical mile area differ with the traditionally known pirates, as when they capture a ship, or take hostage its crews they ask for huge blackmails from their affiliated countries and free the hostages after receiving those amounts.

The commander said that piracy is a crime according to the UN Law of the Sea 1982 Convention, but that convention does not oblige the governments to arrest, pursue, or punish the pirates.

“Using other maritime conventions is needed in this case therefore, so that the arrested pirates should be delivered to the countries that are ready and willing to put them to trial will be able to do so” he said.

He said that the final destination of the pirates in the southern waters of the Red Sea, the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, the southern waters of Yemen, the Sea of Aden up to the Horn of Africa and the eastern coasts of Somali and Kenya after hostage taking from the commercial ships and the oil tankers is the coasts and beaches of Somalia where they take refuge.

The Iranian Navy’s 31st Naval Fleet which is dispatched to the Sea of Aden is comprised of one destroyer (Jamaran), and the logistical-combat Bushehr Warship.

 

 

 

Source: IRNA

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