IRGC Threatens Ships at Anchor off Musandam Peninsula
In a further serious breach of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Iran’s IRGC Navy has threatened ships at anchor in the Omani Musandam port of Khasab. The IRGC Navy has been issuing a repeated ‘serious warning’ on Channel 16, ordering ships in Khasab harbor to ‘go back to Dubai anchorage’. The warning also applied to shipping in the ports of Mina Saqr and Ras al Khaimah. Omani authorities normally attempt to jam transmissions from the IRGC Navy directed at vessels in Omani territorial waters, but in this instance the message appears to have got though.
The number of ships in Khasab’s Anchorages A and B have risen significantly in recent days. Potentially some of these mostly small ships may have been hoping to escape the Gulf, slipping around the Musandam peninsula, keeping to in inshore waters and thereby reducing the risk of IRGC attack. Some ships appear to have heeded the warning, have raised anchor and are heading back westwards.
Also a likely response to the US "Project Freedom" to encourage movement through the strait, the Iranian authorities appear to have issues a notice to shipping to avoid a much wider area, including all of Oman’s territorial waters off the Musandam peninsula. This is a particular threat to Oman, as many fishing communities along the coastline have no road or land access, and are dependent on resupply by ship. The Iranian-defined area first appeared on the Al Jazeera Arabic news channel.
Red boundaries showing approximate border of Iranian-declared prohibited area, the Iranian-mandated shipping channel (pink) and the extent (green) of Omani territorial waters (Google Earth/Copernicus/CJRC)
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The current situation in the Strait of Hormuz threatens a whole series of long-standing UNCLOS management at sea arrangements over which the International Maritime Organization has oversight. IMO Secretary General Arsenio Dominguez, who has a reputation both for diplomatic effectiveness and robustness, is believed to be planning to visit Oman, one of the nations most seriously affected by Iran’s ripping-up of the rule book.
Top image courtesy VesselFinder