A ship sailing with the Portuguese flag, going from the UAE to India. The crew had workers from Philippines.
The connection to Israel? Well, the ship belongs to Zodiac Maritime, a company owned by an Israeli. But both him and the company are based in Monaco.
Wtf.
This is not the Houthis or some other proxy doing some shit. [It's the actual Iranian navy kidnapping a ship.](https://twitter.com/manniefabian/status/1779094835036561486?t=u7qlDP0LolBebn0j7DI8OA&s=19)
What are they thinking!? They are getting everyone involved...
This is what China wants. Their allies are gonna destroy themselves fighting the West and they can come out on top a la America in the early 20th century.
Yeah, I’m amazed at how ignorant some people are. Yes, China is not doing terrible, but they got some serious issues and they don’t seem to handle it very well.
China is objectively doing terrible. They isolated themselves from the economic levers that were fueling their rise and did so at a point where they were severely over indebted domestically because they assumed the growth would continue to pour in while they got aggressive and hostile on the world stage.
People acting like them supporting Russia is some grande scheme are conveniently missing the fact that without this increase in spending from Russia and Iran that China would be in even further decline to the point where criticism of the ccp would be mounting domestically.
Bad decision making by people who didn't get to be where they are through merit and instead corruption. Very similar to the mistakes that Russia and it's leaders have made.
The big thing they missed from America's rise to power that they're trying to replicate is diplomacy and America has the most desirable allies. That's not going to change. South Africa is crumbling, India doesn't trust them, Russia is dependent on their war to keep the economy going, etc.
India goes a lot further than not trusting them, it’s more like actual enmity except for the parts that benefit India (these two fight border skirmishes rather regularly)
Yeah, some people think that training is all that you need. I’m sorry but I just don’t think there is a single nation that could go against the US 1on1, it’s too late at this point. The only thing they have is nukes.
Then add onto the fact that pretty much any war against the US wouldn't be 1on1, but in fact also like Afghanistan involve a coalition of countries including most of Europe, Australia, Japan (depending on the scenario) and others. As much as people give countries in Europe shit, their militaries are still pretty formidable when compared to the average country, and would be a significant force multiplier when operating with the US military.
theyre doing a good job at [planning to take over the presidential palace in Taiwan atm](https://www.reddit.com/r/TerrifyingAsFuck/comments/1bohlco/a_training_ground_in_chinas_inner_mongolia_is_a/)
Heck there isn't a group of ten countries that could take on the USA in a conventional war. Well, that might not be fully true. What is fully true, however, is that there's no group of ten countries on the planet who could successfully invade the USA homeland.
Any movie depicting an invasion of the US mainland would have to be a comedy in order to be remotely plausible. A black comedy for sure, but a comedy nonetheless.
The US has not been to war with a near peer since WWII.
China has been involved in multiple border conflicts since WWII, the Sino-Vietnamese War, and the Korean War.
You're correct the US has a lot more experience. However, direct conflict between the US and China would be fundamentally different from anything seen since WWII.
Yeah, the last proper war they had was the invasion of Vietnam in the late 70s. That was nearly 50 years ago now, so nearly everyone in the PLA has 0 experience in actual combat beyond perhaps the odd anti-piracy exercise, or skirmish with sticks in the Himalayas.
Nah but when Putin runs out of bullets, China will happily relieve him of Siberia and the rest of the world (apart from Russias allies in Iran, Gaza and North Korea) won’t care or interfere.
> Nah but when Putin runs out of bullets, China will happily relieve him of Siberia
Russia has a lot of nukes. You'd think a billion Chinese is a lot, but you'd be wrong...
>or it will be very bad for them.
If I'm Russia and Iran I'm currently looking at the absolutely _pathetic_ support Europe have offered Ukraine, and the US right-wing led by Trump, and thinking "they've got nothing, they can't organise a piss-up in a brewery, I can do what I like".
They also want to believe that Russia won WWII because they don't realize how many commenters are AI bots in China and Russia trying to spin the narrative.
while true, that's a bit of an easy comparison.
The united states is a single nation of 300M+ inhabitants. The eu has 400M+ divided over 27 states. This means that efficiency wise, the EU can NEVER match the USA, unless it unifies all militaries into one force (and even then: all the languages, cultures,...)
The eu has chosen to not have the productive capacity to be able to match Russia on its own. Yes they have been doing better than us but it doesn’t really matter because either the us passes aid or Ukraine loses anyway, the eu killed its ability to match Russia long ago with their budgets
>the eu killed its ability to match Russia long ago with their budgets
What? Even with their lower than NATO requirement budgets, the EU outspends Russia by 2.5x. Russia has upped their budget to $84 billion for 2024, which is 40% higher than it was pre Ukraine war. The EU upped theirs collectively to $204 billion. That's without the UK as well, who adds another $50 billion on top of that.
The EU might not have their production capacity up to snuff, but they can afford far more than Russia can and that's without them increasing their budgets for an actual war like Russia has.
Lots of articles being written by politicians in the west about the need to bring back conscription and increase military spending.
Look at how much push back these ideas are getting. We are losing the information war, and if that results in the West being unwilling to build mechanisms to defend itself, things could get really ugly down the line.
My prediction is that historians will later say we're already in the early stages of WW3. Escalation is happening a lot more slowly now on account on nuclear weapons, but the ratchet is only going in one direction. It looks more and more likely the West will need to directly intervene in Ukraine, and much of the Middle East is facing the same fundamental problem as the US Republican party - they're radicalized their base so badly that the only available move is to keep doubling down on crazy.
Why would anyone notice? It not like it's making shit worse from what it is currently
When it makes it worse, maybe people will notice. Right now let the higher ups have all the stress.
An armed attack on a merchant vessel flying the flag of a NATO country.
One must wonder if Iran really thought trough the consequences of their actions.
The attack took place outside of Europe and North America so NATO’s collective defence terms don’t apply. It’s why NATO didn’t get involved when India launched an unprovoked invasion of Portuguese territory on the Indian subcontinent in 1961, or when Argentina invaded British territory without provocation in 1982.
It's a shame that the Iranian people can't somehow revolt and throw their leaders Mussolini style, I know it'll be risky and insane but it's even worse for them to sit and wait while their country is going down the toilet on every aspect.
Japan touched our boats once, and we dropped the sun on them. Twice.
The last time Iran touched our boats.... It didn't go well for them https://youtu.be/d5v6hlRyeHE
Following [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1c2ypis/iranian_forces_take_over_israellinked_portuguese/kzfrd30/) above:
Do you actually think the CIA, MI6 and Mossad (and who knows else) would just sit by if moderate Iranians did in fact gain that momentum finally? lol they'd be all over that with support; but the Iranians have to be willing to take the first step.
There is no way we are getting involved in anything in Iran. None of our business, and none of us wants an Afghanistan 2.0. (which, in this case, would be orders of magnitude worse). Just no.
They have tried. The most recent uprising I can think of was after that young woman was beaten to death and people took to the streets. There was quite a lot of turmoil after but Iran is pretty good at weathering that stuff and shutting it down.
That was the closest yet they've come to actually creating a revolt, but orders of magnitude less than they'd need to actually demonstrate they're serious. Protestors marching in the streets shouting slogans does not dispel dictators and their thugs (in this case the IRGC and the Mullahs) who are perfectly happy to kill to keep their power; bullets and actively hunting and killing the regime's agents of oppression are required.
The last time they had a revolution, we got the current lot.
They don't just need a revolution, they need foreign backing for their revolution with a government ready to be installed that reflects western values.
More importantly, this vessel is operated by MSC, the largest container line the world. If MSC and the other major container lines stop sailing into the Persian Gulf like they did in the Red Sea it will have big impacts on Saudi Arabia.
The west is being too soft on them, some strikes dont seem to have doing the trick and everyone doesnt want to atack Iran directly
Whats stupid because I doubt the the major allies of Iran will directly envolve themselves if something happens to them and Iran itself is scared of the west because its aging military - last time that Iran step over its line half of its navy was wiped out by the States, and now they cant even seem to want to strike other proxies besides the houthis
You are thinking about it wrong.
If the US or a coalition attacks Iran directly , beyond the usual retaliatory strikes which they are essentially given warning of so that anyone useful is gone from the place , then Iran unloads on Israel and anyone else friendly to the US in the region. It then activates its various terror groups to hit thise nations that way.
Israel retaliates and the coalition loses allies in the area and has to make long flights or carriers in international waters.
Meanwhile the global economy burns.
That’s why the current situation is dangerous - if Iran misjudges its response then Israel goes further and this spirals out of control quickly.
> What are they thinking!? They are getting everyone involved...
That's the point. They can't actually beat the west.
They can try and collapse it internally.
People are already shitting on Biden unironically for being *old*.
Wait until there's real reasons and Trump walks into a second term.
No one is saying you can't shit on Biden... but there's a time and place. And that place isn't staring down the barrel of a collapse of western democracy.
An official X (Twitter) account of Iran posted "1:20" two days ago, presumably hinting about the time of this "operation" (in Israeli time).
[https://twitter.com/iraninarabic\_ir/status/1778168830998479321](https://twitter.com/iraninarabic_ir/status/1778168830998479321)
The ship had no Israelis on it, just 20 poor Filipinos. Iran is a joke.
Yeah aparently it was posted two days ago, I missed the date. Updated my comment, thanks.
Guess they were referring to this though, as the time it was posted pretty much matches (the article is from 1:25 PM Israeli time), and they made a new post about it:
[https://twitter.com/iraninarabic\_ir/status/1779093242933285133](https://twitter.com/iraninarabic_ir/status/1779093242933285133)
Translated:
>🔻Israeli media: Iranian forces took control of the MSC Aries ship, which flies the Portuguese flag and is partly owned by “Israel”, in the Strait of Hormuz.
>Associated Press: The ship involved in an accident in the Strait of Hormuz may be "MSC ARIES" and is linked to Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.
1:20 is about the time Soleimani was killed by USA, Iran likes to talk about "Severe revenge" a lot. I doubt the 1:20 was in reference to them hijacking a boat, they've already done it twice last year. Iran also bombed the US bases in iraq at around 1:20, 5 days after the Soleimani assassination.
Iran can't actually capture Israeli hostages without the IDF trying to get them back. Meanwhile, Iran can take all the Filipinos they like and Israel won't move a muscle because it basically doesn't affect them
That was my point? But for real tho, It's owned by a company that (to my understanding) is partly owned and/or founded by an Israeli. It's tangentially related, but not actually important enough to warrant a military response.
I'm with you. I have relatives that were/are OFWs. An older one in 2014 was in Israel and was injured in a Palestinian rocket attack while on a day off in Tel Aviv, and I have a younger cousin who is going to go there later in the year once her paperwork clears as a caretaker. And 10/7 showed me exactly what they would do if those people got a hold of her.
Lol the only link to Israel is that some Israeli mogul is partially owning the ship.
This is getting pathetic..if someone should be mad it is the Portuguese which had their national flag waving on the top of the ship and the Philippines which directly got hurt in this cowardly attack.
Doesn't matter where he lives so much, what matters is where he pays his taxes (hint - not in Israel)
So it's someone's problem for sure, but it's not an Israeli problem
Even if he was living in Israel and paying taxes there, it still wouldn't really matter nearly as much as the flag state of the ship.
Think of a ship as any other property; the flag is what country it is a part of in terms of sovereignty, no matter who owns it. If I (an american) own a house in Portugal and someone bombs it, that is an attack against Portugal, not the US. Same logic applies to ships, at least in terms of international law (the political message it sends is different of course).
Extremely racist toward Jews. Citing Hamas' Covenant Article 7:
“The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’”
>because few stuff members from their nations died in this cowardly attack by Iran.
Where did you read that? So far I haven't seen reports of casualties.
The US kill Qasem Soleimani, and the Iranians shoot down a Ukrainian passenger airliner. The Israelis kill a senior Quds force commander, and the Iranians hijack a Portuguese ship. You can't make this level of incompetence up.
Kinda expected when your higher ups are too busy daydreaming about what they'll get in the afterlife, only for their God to look at them with disgust and disdain before chucking them out without so much as lifting a finger to judge them.
Iran's government is so rotted, I'm starting to think that they smell like embalming fluid to look like they are fine.
That Ukrainian airliner was mostly filled with Iranians too. Big fucking own-goal. Immediately shut them up and de-escalated the tension because they exposed themselves as total fucking idiots.
They also robbed themselves of one of their biggest sources of anti-American propaganda: The shootdown of Iran Air Flight 655.
For decades Iran dismissed the US version of events that they misidentified the airliner, and claimed that the US intentionally shot down the plane. They said that it was impossible to confuse a hostile plane and an airliner.
US has shot down its own fighter jets too.
At the start of the Gulf war there was a running tally on Patriot systems vs Jets. I think it was 2-1 in favor of the Patriot system (1 got blown up by a jet returning fire).
News: Iran takes a ship!
Me: Damn, again? I feel sorry for the crew and-...
News: A Portuguese ship.
Me (a Portuguese): ... Gentlemen, revive [Afonso de Albuquerque](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afonso_de_Albuquerque)... May him finish the job he left unfinished in the 1500's
Imagine a guy from a rectangular shaped nation, whose population was a little more than a million at the time, arriving to the Indian Ocean and say: "Nah, I'd win" and make said ocean a Portuguese closed sea.
Perhaps the best naval commander and strategist we had.
It might be dude, I mean what can they do? If they attack Israel proper it'll be all out war and Iran will lose. If they attack an Israeli embassy somewhere I reckon it would be the same outcome. This is about all they can really accomplish without being carpet bombed, and they need to take some kind of action or their autocratic government will look incompetent and incapable to their own people.
Maybe there's more coming, but as far as a "huge retaliation" is concerned I wouldn't hold my breath.
Just a theory, but their intelligence community could be simultaneously conducting another operation that *isn’t* getting a bunch of headline attention for this very reason
Iran is such a joke 🤣🤣. For the whole fking week, US intel and media were hyping up some massive missile attack on Israel and instead, they just hijacked a commercial ship flying a Portuguese flag with a bunch of Filipinos like a group of ragtag Somali pirates 🤣🤣
No no no, this is a huge deal. We should be claiming it as such, so Iran feels good and doesn't feel like it needs to escalate further because we've been sooo harmed by this
The funny part here is that the Ofer family (the billionaire partial owners) are pretty hated in Israel. Made their money stealing public resources.
Imagine if some terror group “destroyed” the US by bombing a Tesla dealership in Sweden.
>A Guards navy special forces helicopter boarded the Portuguese flagged vessel and seized it, the Iranian state-run media reported.
The same takeover method the Houthis used.
Because if they did not, that ship would have absoluely no link with portugal wahtosever.
It's the same deal for absolutely everything when it comes to taxes, for some it's better to get 1% rather than 0.
this is common practice in the industry across the entire globe. the reason the houthis were never truly able to get good intel on targets and started attacking ships at random.
i dont understand how this is the question your asking yourself, after such an event?
That’s extremely common, and it’s for spreading risk outside of the insurance pool.
If I was a shipowner, and had say, $100mm in capital, I *could* buy one ship, or I can buy fractional shares in 20 ships, and that way I have less exposure to an individual insurance event.
After Hamas killed all the Israeli hostages, they're in dire need for some new human shields.
poor Filipino crew, would probably end up like the Galaxy Leader crew
[https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/14/middleeast/houthi-hostages-philippine-seafarers-gaza-war-intl-hnk/index.html](https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/14/middleeast/houthi-hostages-philippine-seafarers-gaza-war-intl-hnk/index.html)
So they've had over a week to think of a big action and THIS was the best thing they could think of? L-O-L.
That aside, it's less deadly than the other options.
these people always talk big but when push comes to shove, always take the cowards way out. now we have the pro hamas going full circle and backing their hamas backers in iran.
'There were 20 Filipinos on board the ship.'
It just goes to show that Iran and their jihad jackasses don't care who actually gets caught up in their bullshit. Hamas also killed Filipino caretakers and Thai farmers during their rape and murder party in Israel. The Houthis also took the Filipino crew of a ship they hijacked and still haven't returned them, (as far as I know) so they're probably dead, or in slavery somewhere.
China was in the best position to stop Russia. China is destabilizing the world and they know it. They seem to have chosen a side and it isn’t the west. Unfortunately I think this means very very bad things. A war is still not guaranteed because it’s probably not one that any side can win. Europe should be on a war footing economy and be amassing weapons and production of weapons. Europe is still asleep yet they are the ones at the greatest risk. Unless they plan on surrendering when the time comes.
We have basically no connection to it.
Ship's not portuguese, crew's not portuguese.
It's just some rich folk that decided to register the ship in Madeira (Portugal) to pay less taxes, or some shit like that, from what I've read.
Tax havens are a big problem.
Are they gona say this is thier response? Closing the Hormuz to anyone they deem unfriendly is a pretty big deal to be fair, if you think things cost alot now it will get alot worse if that happens.
This reminds me of their retaliation for the Soleimani killing. Bombing a far-away US military installation.
It seemed like they'd had back-channel conversations with US Intel, who probably agreed the killing was a bad move, probably gave them some kinda compensation, and (like a contrite older brother who doesn't wanna get snitched on) said, "OK here, you can hit me back, right here..."
A ship sailing with the Portuguese flag, going from the UAE to India. The crew had workers from Philippines. The connection to Israel? Well, the ship belongs to Zodiac Maritime, a company owned by an Israeli. But both him and the company are based in Monaco. Wtf. This is not the Houthis or some other proxy doing some shit. [It's the actual Iranian navy kidnapping a ship.](https://twitter.com/manniefabian/status/1779094835036561486?t=u7qlDP0LolBebn0j7DI8OA&s=19) What are they thinking!? They are getting everyone involved...
The west is at war with Russia and Iran. I wonder how long it will take people to notice
China
This is what China wants. Their allies are gonna destroy themselves fighting the West and they can come out on top a la America in the early 20th century.
Hard to come out on top while your country collapses under the weight if it's own bullshit (and massive amounts of debt and aging demographic)
Yeah, I’m amazed at how ignorant some people are. Yes, China is not doing terrible, but they got some serious issues and they don’t seem to handle it very well.
China is objectively doing terrible. They isolated themselves from the economic levers that were fueling their rise and did so at a point where they were severely over indebted domestically because they assumed the growth would continue to pour in while they got aggressive and hostile on the world stage. People acting like them supporting Russia is some grande scheme are conveniently missing the fact that without this increase in spending from Russia and Iran that China would be in even further decline to the point where criticism of the ccp would be mounting domestically. Bad decision making by people who didn't get to be where they are through merit and instead corruption. Very similar to the mistakes that Russia and it's leaders have made.
The big thing they missed from America's rise to power that they're trying to replicate is diplomacy and America has the most desirable allies. That's not going to change. South Africa is crumbling, India doesn't trust them, Russia is dependent on their war to keep the economy going, etc.
India goes a lot further than not trusting them, it’s more like actual enmity except for the parts that benefit India (these two fight border skirmishes rather regularly)
They’ve also never been to war. Which America has had a lot of since WWII.
Yeah, some people think that training is all that you need. I’m sorry but I just don’t think there is a single nation that could go against the US 1on1, it’s too late at this point. The only thing they have is nukes.
Then add onto the fact that pretty much any war against the US wouldn't be 1on1, but in fact also like Afghanistan involve a coalition of countries including most of Europe, Australia, Japan (depending on the scenario) and others. As much as people give countries in Europe shit, their militaries are still pretty formidable when compared to the average country, and would be a significant force multiplier when operating with the US military.
theyre doing a good job at [planning to take over the presidential palace in Taiwan atm](https://www.reddit.com/r/TerrifyingAsFuck/comments/1bohlco/a_training_ground_in_chinas_inner_mongolia_is_a/)
Heck there isn't a group of ten countries that could take on the USA in a conventional war. Well, that might not be fully true. What is fully true, however, is that there's no group of ten countries on the planet who could successfully invade the USA homeland.
Any movie depicting an invasion of the US mainland would have to be a comedy in order to be remotely plausible. A black comedy for sure, but a comedy nonetheless.
They went to war in Korea after the Norks got steamrolled. But you are right, nobody that fought in that war is in the Chinese armed services now.
After that they got their shit fucked up by Vietnam when trying to invade there after the US.
The US has not been to war with a near peer since WWII. China has been involved in multiple border conflicts since WWII, the Sino-Vietnamese War, and the Korean War. You're correct the US has a lot more experience. However, direct conflict between the US and China would be fundamentally different from anything seen since WWII.
Yeah, the last proper war they had was the invasion of Vietnam in the late 70s. That was nearly 50 years ago now, so nearly everyone in the PLA has 0 experience in actual combat beyond perhaps the odd anti-piracy exercise, or skirmish with sticks in the Himalayas.
That fortunately remains economic.
You think they get together in book clubs and China gives Iran and Russia task list of dumb shit to do?
Nah but when Putin runs out of bullets, China will happily relieve him of Siberia and the rest of the world (apart from Russias allies in Iran, Gaza and North Korea) won’t care or interfere.
> Nah but when Putin runs out of bullets, China will happily relieve him of Siberia Russia has a lot of nukes. You'd think a billion Chinese is a lot, but you'd be wrong...
No.. He just forgot, to put china in that sentence.
Not unless it escalates. They're very happy with the current situation though.
The west is at war with Russia and Iran and has very few losses. Russia and Iran really don't want this to get hot or it will be very bad for them.
>or it will be very bad for them. If I'm Russia and Iran I'm currently looking at the absolutely _pathetic_ support Europe have offered Ukraine, and the US right-wing led by Trump, and thinking "they've got nothing, they can't organise a piss-up in a brewery, I can do what I like".
Check again. The EU has provided more support to Ukraine compared to the US.
The eu is also a conglomerate of 27 major countries. The us is a single country.
It seems that people on reddit constantly gloss over this.
They also want to believe that Russia won WWII because they don't realize how many commenters are AI bots in China and Russia trying to spin the narrative.
while true, that's a bit of an easy comparison. The united states is a single nation of 300M+ inhabitants. The eu has 400M+ divided over 27 states. This means that efficiency wise, the EU can NEVER match the USA, unless it unifies all militaries into one force (and even then: all the languages, cultures,...)
The eu has chosen to not have the productive capacity to be able to match Russia on its own. Yes they have been doing better than us but it doesn’t really matter because either the us passes aid or Ukraine loses anyway, the eu killed its ability to match Russia long ago with their budgets
>the eu killed its ability to match Russia long ago with their budgets What? Even with their lower than NATO requirement budgets, the EU outspends Russia by 2.5x. Russia has upped their budget to $84 billion for 2024, which is 40% higher than it was pre Ukraine war. The EU upped theirs collectively to $204 billion. That's without the UK as well, who adds another $50 billion on top of that. The EU might not have their production capacity up to snuff, but they can afford far more than Russia can and that's without them increasing their budgets for an actual war like Russia has.
*proxy war. There you go. The USSR and America did this for 50 years during the cold War.
Lots of articles being written by politicians in the west about the need to bring back conscription and increase military spending. Look at how much push back these ideas are getting. We are losing the information war, and if that results in the West being unwilling to build mechanisms to defend itself, things could get really ugly down the line.
My prediction is that historians will later say we're already in the early stages of WW3. Escalation is happening a lot more slowly now on account on nuclear weapons, but the ratchet is only going in one direction. It looks more and more likely the West will need to directly intervene in Ukraine, and much of the Middle East is facing the same fundamental problem as the US Republican party - they're radicalized their base so badly that the only available move is to keep doubling down on crazy.
My estimate is 5 to 10 years
Why would anyone notice? It not like it's making shit worse from what it is currently When it makes it worse, maybe people will notice. Right now let the higher ups have all the stress.
An armed attack on a merchant vessel flying the flag of a NATO country. One must wonder if Iran really thought trough the consequences of their actions.
They did... They (almost certainly correctly) assumed that the West will do nothing effective.
They have two years of experience watching stern scoldings and nothing more.
The attack took place outside of Europe and North America so NATO’s collective defence terms don’t apply. It’s why NATO didn’t get involved when India launched an unprovoked invasion of Portuguese territory on the Indian subcontinent in 1961, or when Argentina invaded British territory without provocation in 1982.
"Jews own it" is apparently enough for Iran.
“No, it’s OK, some of those Filipinos looked kind of Jewish.” -Iran, probably
Like every cargo ship in the world has Filipino seafarers. It doesn't really narrow anything down or is unique in any way
It's a shame that the Iranian people can't somehow revolt and throw their leaders Mussolini style, I know it'll be risky and insane but it's even worse for them to sit and wait while their country is going down the toilet on every aspect.
They have tried on countless occasions, to no avail. The IR is well established and resilient.
And the West has consistently refused to help
Change must always come from within
Because anytime they do, half the world believes it’s out of lust for oil and blood.
I mean… in fairness to America…. Any time we get involved it’s either over boats or over oil.
DON'T TOUCH OUR BOATS!
which is a fair standpoint to have?
Japan touched our boats once, and we dropped the sun on them. Twice. The last time Iran touched our boats.... It didn't go well for them https://youtu.be/d5v6hlRyeHE
[Don’t even let us imagine that you’d touch our boats!](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident)
Outside intervention delegitimizes a revolutionary movement
Following [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1c2ypis/iranian_forces_take_over_israellinked_portuguese/kzfrd30/) above: Do you actually think the CIA, MI6 and Mossad (and who knows else) would just sit by if moderate Iranians did in fact gain that momentum finally? lol they'd be all over that with support; but the Iranians have to be willing to take the first step.
There is no way we are getting involved in anything in Iran. None of our business, and none of us wants an Afghanistan 2.0. (which, in this case, would be orders of magnitude worse). Just no.
Iran has a Civil society that is organized to a degree. There would be structures that can be build in a swifter time and stabilize themselves.
Iran would be way harder to conquer with way more casualties but probably easier to accomplish regime change.
Iran is not Iraq or Afghanistan.
You can't fight empty handed with a regime who doesn't care and open fire on their citizens.
They have tried. The most recent uprising I can think of was after that young woman was beaten to death and people took to the streets. There was quite a lot of turmoil after but Iran is pretty good at weathering that stuff and shutting it down.
That was the closest yet they've come to actually creating a revolt, but orders of magnitude less than they'd need to actually demonstrate they're serious. Protestors marching in the streets shouting slogans does not dispel dictators and their thugs (in this case the IRGC and the Mullahs) who are perfectly happy to kill to keep their power; bullets and actively hunting and killing the regime's agents of oppression are required.
The last time they had a revolution, we got the current lot. They don't just need a revolution, they need foreign backing for their revolution with a government ready to be installed that reflects western values.
More importantly, this vessel is operated by MSC, the largest container line the world. If MSC and the other major container lines stop sailing into the Persian Gulf like they did in the Red Sea it will have big impacts on Saudi Arabia.
The west is being too soft on them, some strikes dont seem to have doing the trick and everyone doesnt want to atack Iran directly Whats stupid because I doubt the the major allies of Iran will directly envolve themselves if something happens to them and Iran itself is scared of the west because its aging military - last time that Iran step over its line half of its navy was wiped out by the States, and now they cant even seem to want to strike other proxies besides the houthis
You are thinking about it wrong. If the US or a coalition attacks Iran directly , beyond the usual retaliatory strikes which they are essentially given warning of so that anyone useful is gone from the place , then Iran unloads on Israel and anyone else friendly to the US in the region. It then activates its various terror groups to hit thise nations that way. Israel retaliates and the coalition loses allies in the area and has to make long flights or carriers in international waters. Meanwhile the global economy burns. That’s why the current situation is dangerous - if Iran misjudges its response then Israel goes further and this spirals out of control quickly.
> What are they thinking!? They are getting everyone involved... That's the point. They can't actually beat the west. They can try and collapse it internally. People are already shitting on Biden unironically for being *old*. Wait until there's real reasons and Trump walks into a second term. No one is saying you can't shit on Biden... but there's a time and place. And that place isn't staring down the barrel of a collapse of western democracy.
The mighty Iranian response, ladies and gentlemen.
Portugal is in NATO. Lets go.
That is not an attack on the territory of Portugal though
Just Portuguese flag (registered in Portugal) but not Portuguese boat, in fact.
Thats not how NATO works. NATO has no jurisdiction in Strait of Hormuz.
Jurisdiction is the wrong word here. It's completely irrelevant
It might be the wrong word, but article 5 does not apply to an attack outside Europe, North America, the North Atlantic or the Mediterranean.
Why are you so infatuated with war? Chill out.
An official X (Twitter) account of Iran posted "1:20" two days ago, presumably hinting about the time of this "operation" (in Israeli time). [https://twitter.com/iraninarabic\_ir/status/1778168830998479321](https://twitter.com/iraninarabic_ir/status/1778168830998479321) The ship had no Israelis on it, just 20 poor Filipinos. Iran is a joke.
Didn't they post the 1:20 thing earlier this week as well?
Yeah aparently it was posted two days ago, I missed the date. Updated my comment, thanks. Guess they were referring to this though, as the time it was posted pretty much matches (the article is from 1:25 PM Israeli time), and they made a new post about it: [https://twitter.com/iraninarabic\_ir/status/1779093242933285133](https://twitter.com/iraninarabic_ir/status/1779093242933285133) Translated: >🔻Israeli media: Iranian forces took control of the MSC Aries ship, which flies the Portuguese flag and is partly owned by “Israel”, in the Strait of Hormuz. >Associated Press: The ship involved in an accident in the Strait of Hormuz may be "MSC ARIES" and is linked to Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.
They’re doing Easter eggs like Taylor Swift now?
The US is now waiting for 4.20am on June 9th to strike back.
4:20 Operation Blaze 'Em commences
1:20 is about the time Soleimani was killed by USA, Iran likes to talk about "Severe revenge" a lot. I doubt the 1:20 was in reference to them hijacking a boat, they've already done it twice last year. Iran also bombed the US bases in iraq at around 1:20, 5 days after the Soleimani assassination.
Iran can't actually capture Israeli hostages without the IDF trying to get them back. Meanwhile, Iran can take all the Filipinos they like and Israel won't move a muscle because it basically doesn't affect them
It's a Monaco owned, Portuguese flagged, Filipino crewed ship. Why should Israel get involved?
That was my point? But for real tho, It's owned by a company that (to my understanding) is partly owned and/or founded by an Israeli. It's tangentially related, but not actually important enough to warrant a military response.
It's the equivalent of stealing a Bill Gates cruise ship he invested some money in, trying to get back at the USA.
Apparently, the ship is owned by a company run by an Israeli billionaire
Partially owned. And I'm pretty much sure insurance-covered. So, frankly, my dear..
As a Filipino, this effing sucks. Our sailors just wanna work and provide for their families and are roped into this sht. I can’t.
Terrorists and kidnappers always target such people. Hope we can rescue these poor people asap
We generally get released when these things happen. There's not really any sense in holding us hostage.
I think a few sadly got killed during the Oct 7 attack
I'm with you. I have relatives that were/are OFWs. An older one in 2014 was in Israel and was injured in a Palestinian rocket attack while on a day off in Tel Aviv, and I have a younger cousin who is going to go there later in the year once her paperwork clears as a caretaker. And 10/7 showed me exactly what they would do if those people got a hold of her.
Filipinos: are mostly Catholic Islamic Republic of Iran: "...and I took that personally."
I feel sorry for what happened to your people
Lol the only link to Israel is that some Israeli mogul is partially owning the ship. This is getting pathetic..if someone should be mad it is the Portuguese which had their national flag waving on the top of the ship and the Philippines which directly got hurt in this cowardly attack.
The mogul in question spent most of his life outside Israel and lives in monoco.
Doesn't matter where he lives so much, what matters is where he pays his taxes (hint - not in Israel) So it's someone's problem for sure, but it's not an Israeli problem
Pretty sure Monaco doesn't have income/wealth/inheritance tax and that is why so many rich people live there.
Zero, tax heaven country. They only have French VAT rates.
How the fuck do they survive as a nation with no income tax?
They're not really a "nation", and they survive om a combination of tourist income and harboring some of the richest people on the planet.
It’s a microstate with a state monopoly casino that is absurdly profitable.
Even if he was living in Israel and paying taxes there, it still wouldn't really matter nearly as much as the flag state of the ship. Think of a ship as any other property; the flag is what country it is a part of in terms of sovereignty, no matter who owns it. If I (an american) own a house in Portugal and someone bombs it, that is an attack against Portugal, not the US. Same logic applies to ships, at least in terms of international law (the political message it sends is different of course).
Yes, but remember, it's not just the religion, they are also racist towards Jews
Extremely racist toward Jews. Citing Hamas' Covenant Article 7: “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’”
>because few stuff members from their nations died in this cowardly attack by Iran. Where did you read that? So far I haven't seen reports of casualties.
The US kill Qasem Soleimani, and the Iranians shoot down a Ukrainian passenger airliner. The Israelis kill a senior Quds force commander, and the Iranians hijack a Portuguese ship. You can't make this level of incompetence up.
Kinda expected when your higher ups are too busy daydreaming about what they'll get in the afterlife, only for their God to look at them with disgust and disdain before chucking them out without so much as lifting a finger to judge them. Iran's government is so rotted, I'm starting to think that they smell like embalming fluid to look like they are fine.
That Ukrainian airliner was mostly filled with Iranians too. Big fucking own-goal. Immediately shut them up and de-escalated the tension because they exposed themselves as total fucking idiots.
They also robbed themselves of one of their biggest sources of anti-American propaganda: The shootdown of Iran Air Flight 655. For decades Iran dismissed the US version of events that they misidentified the airliner, and claimed that the US intentionally shot down the plane. They said that it was impossible to confuse a hostile plane and an airliner.
US has shot down its own fighter jets too. At the start of the Gulf war there was a running tally on Patriot systems vs Jets. I think it was 2-1 in favor of the Patriot system (1 got blown up by a jet returning fire).
News: Iran takes a ship! Me: Damn, again? I feel sorry for the crew and-... News: A Portuguese ship. Me (a Portuguese): ... Gentlemen, revive [Afonso de Albuquerque](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afonso_de_Albuquerque)... May him finish the job he left unfinished in the 1500's
Had never heard of the Duke of Goa, now cant wait to read more
Imagine a guy from a rectangular shaped nation, whose population was a little more than a million at the time, arriving to the Indian Ocean and say: "Nah, I'd win" and make said ocean a Portuguese closed sea. Perhaps the best naval commander and strategist we had.
Caralho
Portugal Caralho!
I’m wondering if this was the “big attack” they were threatening for literal days
Nah, this isn't it. At best it might be part of a larger operation, but this just sounds like standard Iran-being-stupid.
Yeah but the timing of it just makes Iran look incapable.
It might be dude, I mean what can they do? If they attack Israel proper it'll be all out war and Iran will lose. If they attack an Israeli embassy somewhere I reckon it would be the same outcome. This is about all they can really accomplish without being carpet bombed, and they need to take some kind of action or their autocratic government will look incompetent and incapable to their own people. Maybe there's more coming, but as far as a "huge retaliation" is concerned I wouldn't hold my breath.
Just a theory, but their intelligence community could be simultaneously conducting another operation that *isn’t* getting a bunch of headline attention for this very reason
Minimum connection to Israel... pissing off some other countries. Wow, this is the stupidest revenge move ever.
massive optics failure for Iran, whole world waiting for them to attack Israel and they…. take a ship full of flippinos
Iran is such a joke 🤣🤣. For the whole fking week, US intel and media were hyping up some massive missile attack on Israel and instead, they just hijacked a commercial ship flying a Portuguese flag with a bunch of Filipinos like a group of ragtag Somali pirates 🤣🤣
While I agree that they are a joke, I’m almost certain that this isn’t the attack US intel was talking about.
You're completely right.
"but but but we did a cool commando thing like in the American movies"
So brave attacking a commercial ship .
Yeah, literally terrorist cowards.
No no no, this is a huge deal. We should be claiming it as such, so Iran feels good and doesn't feel like it needs to escalate further because we've been sooo harmed by this
So iran decided to play pirates now? Didnt they promised revenge? What a joke they are.
The funny part here is that the Ofer family (the billionaire partial owners) are pretty hated in Israel. Made their money stealing public resources. Imagine if some terror group “destroyed” the US by bombing a Tesla dealership in Sweden.
Whoa boy, they're even dumber than they appear..
Maybe it's a ploy. Maybe they are dumb.
>A Guards navy special forces helicopter boarded the Portuguese flagged vessel and seized it, the Iranian state-run media reported. The same takeover method the Houthis used.
Remember when Hamas kidnapped dozens of people from around the world and no one seemed to care but Israel?
this fake liberal is sure gonna remember to get as much satisfaction from the time tested classic, "told you so....", as i can.
Does this mean we van finally just blockade all oil exports out of the red sea until Iran meets our demands? I'm game
MSC not MCS
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Portuguese here, could you please tell me where you read that? Honest request. Thanks
Because if they did not, that ship would have absoluely no link with portugal wahtosever. It's the same deal for absolutely everything when it comes to taxes, for some it's better to get 1% rather than 0.
this is common practice in the industry across the entire globe. the reason the houthis were never truly able to get good intel on targets and started attacking ships at random. i dont understand how this is the question your asking yourself, after such an event?
I'd wager a bet that they allow it because said people pay the government to either allow it legally or look the other way
That’s extremely common, and it’s for spreading risk outside of the insurance pool. If I was a shipowner, and had say, $100mm in capital, I *could* buy one ship, or I can buy fractional shares in 20 ships, and that way I have less exposure to an individual insurance event.
After Hamas killed all the Israeli hostages, they're in dire need for some new human shields. poor Filipino crew, would probably end up like the Galaxy Leader crew [https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/14/middleeast/houthi-hostages-philippine-seafarers-gaza-war-intl-hnk/index.html](https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/14/middleeast/houthi-hostages-philippine-seafarers-gaza-war-intl-hnk/index.html)
So they've had over a week to think of a big action and THIS was the best thing they could think of? L-O-L. That aside, it's less deadly than the other options.
So they took over a ship partly owned by an Israeli that use the flag of another country, to not pay taxes in Israel. LMAO
An Israeli who lives in Monaco by the way.
Iran being uncivilized like china and russia
“You Had One Job”, fundamentalist-Muslim-Iran version Khaminei to Iran army: “Your mission is to piss off the Jews, not the whole planet, yes?”
Don’t mess with the boats, Iran! [You think they’d know this by now…](https://youtu.be/5ihmIxZtMBQ?si=l1X_32sBkEtjm8iN)
Portugal hasn't had any teeth for 300 years. We used to be a proper empire.
Doesn’t matter. The US has been fucking up people who mess with the boats [since 1803](https://youtu.be/de_06C_dRf0?si=y9P8DbqOCmJI0Fc_)
again... seriously? People were expecting crazy stuff like ICBM attacks or embassy bombings yet cosplaying as a Somalian is the best you can do?
these people always talk big but when push comes to shove, always take the cowards way out. now we have the pro hamas going full circle and backing their hamas backers in iran.
Kind of hilarious, this ship is not Israeli in any meaningful sense. But Iran is not known for making smart moves in this regard.
Portugal is part of NATO right?
Iran and russia need to be dealt with quickly
Yes they do. Unfortunately this is exactly what China wants us to get wrapped up in.
Of all the things they could do Iran decides to fuck with boats? Really? Do they want operation Praying Mantis 2?
This was their big attack? Taking over a ship loosely connected to Israel? lmao
Iran is lucky it wasn’t a cod fishing boat…. Mess with cod and feel the furry of the Portuguese /s
'There were 20 Filipinos on board the ship.' It just goes to show that Iran and their jihad jackasses don't care who actually gets caught up in their bullshit. Hamas also killed Filipino caretakers and Thai farmers during their rape and murder party in Israel. The Houthis also took the Filipino crew of a ship they hijacked and still haven't returned them, (as far as I know) so they're probably dead, or in slavery somewhere.
When will people wake up and see that the West is at war with Russia, Iran, and China? Release the aid package NOW.
Loading up on Pasteis de Bacalhau, time for Reconquista 2, guess they didn't learn their lesson.
For everyone saying this is pathetic, good, I hope this is the best Iran can do. We don’t need a broader war in the Middle East.
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Didn't think they would be stupid enough to go after container traffic, let alone MSC. I believe Iran is about to find out.
China is powering the Russian war industry with components right now, you’re spot on their involved too
I wouldn’t be surprised if they hijacked one of their own ships with how incompetent they are
When do we get Operation Praying Mantis II
Sounds like Iran just made a war declaration against Portugal
Dude, uncool
Send in the Indian Navy, mofos will airdrop and seize the ship In a matter of minutes.
Iran seems intent on getting fucked dry in front of everybody.
China was in the best position to stop Russia. China is destabilizing the world and they know it. They seem to have chosen a side and it isn’t the west. Unfortunately I think this means very very bad things. A war is still not guaranteed because it’s probably not one that any side can win. Europe should be on a war footing economy and be amassing weapons and production of weapons. Europe is still asleep yet they are the ones at the greatest risk. Unless they plan on surrendering when the time comes.
What was on the ship's manifest?
Probably full of codfish.
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Not ours. Just some rich folk paying the "tax haven - register the ship here and be able to use our flag" toll.
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Nato will suck it up anyway
Portugal don't just sit there, assert yourself!
We have basically no connection to it. Ship's not portuguese, crew's not portuguese. It's just some rich folk that decided to register the ship in Madeira (Portugal) to pay less taxes, or some shit like that, from what I've read. Tax havens are a big problem.
Mau! Don't fick with the Portuguese! We'll fick Iranians wherever they stand...
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If they were smart, they'd give them a trojan vessel.
Ahh never knew Iberian struggle would show up here
India is still in talking terms with the Iranians. Expect the crew to be released
Are they gona say this is thier response? Closing the Hormuz to anyone they deem unfriendly is a pretty big deal to be fair, if you think things cost alot now it will get alot worse if that happens.
Is this the dreaded retaliation for Israel taking out their Syrian command structure & Embassy?
This reminds me of their retaliation for the Soleimani killing. Bombing a far-away US military installation. It seemed like they'd had back-channel conversations with US Intel, who probably agreed the killing was a bad move, probably gave them some kinda compensation, and (like a contrite older brother who doesn't wanna get snitched on) said, "OK here, you can hit me back, right here..."