Iran welcomes 'humanitarian' rescue from pirates

Iran welcomes 'humanitarian' rescue from pirates

www.abc.net.au

The Iranian government has welcomed a US Navy rescue of 13 of its nationals from pirates near the entrance to the Gulf, in a rare respite from months of rising tensions between Tehran and Washington.

But one Iranian media outlet, the Fars news agency, which is close to the hardline Revolutionary Guards, dismissed the incident as a suspect "Hollywood movie" meant "to justify the presence of a (US) aircraft carrier in Persian Gulf waters."

The rescue was carried out on Thursday by one of several warships escorting the carrier USS John C Stennis, which Iranian military chiefs early this

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Iran hates America and threatens them to stay away, now they want them to come and help them save their people from pirates? What if its a set up and Iran fires on the navy? One minute it feels like world war 3 is about to happen and now its like theirs nothing going on, its hard to believe anything the media is saying about the "tension" between the US and Iran at the moment.

www.abc.net.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

What if its a set up and Iran fires on the navy?

You must be on some amazing drugs to think Iran would openly attack the US navy.

I'd just throw in here, the Stennis is out there for anti-piracy operations. That's their purpose, along with ships from various world Navies doing the same thing. This distress signal happened to come from Iranians. We don't say no to a distress call, no matter who it is.... Nothing all that special beyond the fact the Pirates did it close enough to U.S. warships to get busted this time.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Weren't the Iranians captive for 30 or 40 days or some massively long period like that??

reply to post by camouflaged


This doesn't change anything. They didn't welcome them, I think the US took it upon themselves. I don't think they asked the US. It's a nice gesture, but it is paranoid thinking to think the Iranians are so snidely that they would fire on the US when they came in to help. They are trying to avoid a war that Israel is mongering for.

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul

From OP:

The US military announced on Friday that one of the vessels escorting the Stennis, the USS Kidd, rescued the Iranian fishermen from around 45 days of captivity at the hands of pirates thought to be Somalis.

It said the Iranian captain of the dhow had asked the Kidd for help.

It looks like you're right about the time they were being held. I would love to know what circumstances led to the Captain radioing a distress call for the U.S. task force to pick up on. Either way though, the Navy went and did what they've been doing in those waters for some years now. They responded when the opportunity presented itself to bag some pirates...and rescued some Iranians in the process.

I do like how it says we released them to their vessel and then refueled and provisioned it out of Navy stocks aboard the Kidd. That is classy. Although I'd honestly expect nothing less from the U.S. Navy.

I'd like to see the U.S. Navy do one more thing, actually.... How about handing the Pirates over to the Islamic Republic of Iran for trial in their courts. I have a feeling Iranian law is a little less forgiving of piracy against it's flagged vessels than we are.

piracy is a real threat....one day they will go too far....IMO international piracy is a big deal that has to be dealt with......they need more international security around known hot spots.......

it is disturbing....these scum bags are just left to live out their days......fracking this world up.....

Originally posted by SpectreDC

What if its a set up and Iran fires on the navy?

You must be on some amazing drugs to think Iran would openly attack the US navy.

Yea but their really good at threatening from a distance. They'd kick so much ass if we weren't The United States Of America. So much ass.

From the source...

At least one Iranian seemed truly thankful for the rescue...



You could not have bought a better moment to capture than that.

Of course the radicals within the Iranian regime will dismiss this as some kind of fake conspiracy, but it really all does seem legitimate.

At the end of the day here, maybe we really aren't always the bad guys.

reply to post by Fractured.Facade


No one blames your soldiers (not all of them are blood thursty rapists, just a small percentage as in case of any nation) but your regime is just a warmongering one, sorry to say that and I repeat, no one blames your soldiers for anything! They're young adults like you and me doing their, unfortunately mostly bad, duties..

Most excellent story. This is what navies should be used for, protecting people who ask for help!
Now of course, it's very hard to get fully behind anything done by a branch of any government nowadays, so difficult to know if it's legit unless you were there. Pic looks great though. Nothing quite like two sworn enemies hugging each other!!

Local paper human interest story. Good read...

Stockton Record Local Boy makes good

STOCKTON - A 23-year-old Stockton man was at the center of an international incident last week when the U.S. Navy rescued Iranian fishermen held captive by Somali pirates.

Ensign Kendall Bolt, assigned to the destroyer USS Kidd, was a member of the boarding party that saved 13 fishermen in the northern Arabian Sea.

According to the New York Times:

The USS Kidd loomed alongside the hijacked dhow, the warship's loudspeaker issuing commands in Urdu. U.S. sailors, including Bolt, stood ready, weapons in hand.

If you have weapons aboard, the voice boomed, put them where we can see them.

The Somali pirates were crouched and cornered on the vessel they had seized in November to use as their mother ship. They had knives, a pistol and four assault rifles. But they did not speak Urdu. For a moment, the captors depended on their captives.

They asked their Iranian hostages what the U.S. sailors had just said.

One of the hostages, Khaled Abdulkhaled, answered without pause: "They said they are about to blow this ship up."

The pirates panicked. Their unity broke. Each man looked for cover or a place to hide. Discarding their weapons, nine of them crammed into a hold beneath the wheelhouse. Six huddled near the open bow. Soon Bolt and armed U.S. sailors climbed aboard.

Originally posted by RogerT
Most excellent story. This is what navies should be used for, protecting people who ask for help!
Now of course, it's very hard to get fully behind anything done by a branch of any government nowadays, so difficult to know if it's legit unless you were there. Pic looks great though. Nothing quite like two sworn enemies hugging each other!!

Sworn enemies ? Really? .... just saying lol

reply to post by ShamilAbdullah



Yup.

The government is not the people.

I have friends from Iran, and many other far away places. My friend Shapoor was in the US army.

Well i think that if nations are so concernd about the piracy issue they should really put forth the effort to figure out why they are doing it. I wonder if it has anything to do with acts of desperation from living in a war torn poor country. Maybe if they addressed theese issues they would see a decrease in pirate activity .....

Jgte]Originally posted by kawika
reply to post by ShamilAbdullah



Yup.

The government is not the people.

I have friends from Iran, and many other far away places. My friend Shapoor was in the US army.

Indeed your correct. I too have friends in many places .. but never a "sworn enemie"

To me the pic looks a little to picture perfect .. but what ever they have to do to ease the tentaion between each other.

Originally posted by SpectreDC
You must be on some amazing drugs to think Iran would openly attack the US navy.

You must be missing a whole lotta' information on just what the leadership of Iran wants to do.
By attacking the US Navy it will set off a huge chain reaction of world war - which is EXACTLY
what Ahmadinejad has said that he wants to happen. Read why -

CBN - Iranian President Prepares For 12th Imam's Reappearance

President Ahmadinejad seems to think that the time is ripe for the 12th Imam’s reappearance and that, as president, he should play a role in opening the way for his return,” the journal said. “He is reported to have said in one of his cabinet sessions, ‘We have to turn Iran into a modern and divine country to be the model for all nations, and which will also serve as the basis for the return of the 12th Imam.’”

Like Bernard Lewis of Princeton, the Kairos authors said Ahmadinejad seems to believe “that the hand of God is guiding him to trigger a series of cataclysmic events which could precipitate the return of the 12th Imam. Only time will tell if this is his true conviction; but if he does hold such a view, his possession of nuclear weapons is a particularly scary prospect

www.youtube.com...

Telegraph UK - "Divine Mission" Driving Irans New Leader