38 Days off the Somali Coast: MV FAINA Crisis – Ecoterra 36th and 37th Updates

With the entire world concentrating on the forthcoming American elections, there is little chance that the ongoing MV FAINA Crisis comes to a fast end – except the Somali pirates make the surprise. Most probably, this issue – along with so many other crises – will be left over to the next US administration.

The coordination of the incredible, multinational armada gathered – very suspiciously – off the coast of a small and divided country with no significant fleet, is another issue. Will all the different squadrons accept a common admiralty leadership?

What sort of hit has been decided upon? To drive few pirates out of a vessel like MV FAINA wouldn’t need more than few ships and some helicopters.

What sort of world game has been played at the unbeknownst of the Somali pirates?

Are their invisible guides some of the Somali Islamists or some division of the British Intelligence and the CIA?

While a great number of questions is left to be answered, more light on the details of the ongoing crisis and the latest developments is to found in the Ecoterra 36th and 37th updates. Herewith, I publish them integrally.

36th Update 2008-10-30 17:45:39 UTC

Ecoterra Intl. – Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast

Ecoterra International – Update & Media Release on the Stand-off Concerning the Ukrainian Weapons-ship Hi-jacked by Somali Pirates.

New EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: +254-738-497979
East African Seafarers Assistance Programme - Media Officer: +254-733-385868

DAY 36 - 843 h into the FAINA Crisis – Update Summary:

Increased efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now one month long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is still not yet solved, though intensive negotiations have continued and both sides are striving to finalize the modalities of the safe release of crew and vessel. Renewed refuelling of the MV FAINA has been undertaken.

The talks on release of hostages from the FAINA vessel captured by Somali pirates have reached their final stage, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko told a press conference Thursday. He says the question may be settled within "a couple of hours or days, maximum". The minister, having emphasized that the talks with the pirates is a rather delicate question taking certain knowledge and specific experience, openly asked Ukrainian politicians not to interfere with the negotiations and earn their own political capital on that. "This may damage the course of the talks", Ohryzko said. However, observers close to the scene see such blaming games as sign for rather difficult final negotiations.

Ukrainian national radio reported that the owner of the hijacked vessel Faina says there has been "certain progress" in talks on the vessel's release.

"The shipowner informed the pirates that an acceptable ransom is available, and now it is necessary to discuss in detail the terms and machinery for its transfer, release of the crew and the vessel", says Ukraine radio.

"Simultaneously", says the report, "the shipowner is working to recruit a new crew and a repair team who would take the Faina to its destination point, and the current crew will be taken home by air". The captors refused to negotiate on food deliveries. They are taking water and food to the ship on their own. There is a certain reserve of food and drinking water aboard, says Ukraine radio.

The vote to attack the pirates holding the ship that has been moored off Somalia since 26 September came as the Kenya government, through Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang'ula, backed the use of force to repossess the ship. After holding a closed-door meeting with Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, Wetang'ula said the issue of piracy was no longer a Somali one but a global issue that called for immediate attention to put an end to it. Few military experts believe the most likely option was a commando-style raid to overpower the pirates on board, rather than a direct attack on the ship, shooting the vessel could cause a catastrophic explosion and kill the hostages as well as losing the entire cargo, they said. "For now I cannot say when force will be used to free the hijacked ship, but what I can confirm is that the UN has authorized the use of force to end the stand-off between the ship owners and the pirates" said Kenya's Foreign Minister Moses Wtang'ula and also President Kibaki of Kenya supports action against piracy on Somali coastline.

The president stated that Kenya supports the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1814 and 1816 authorizing the use of force against piracy off the Somalia coastline: "I would like to record our appreciation to our partners who have deployed warships to patrol the Somali waters in a bid to deter these criminal activities. As IGAD Member States, it is imperative to develop a regional maritime security policy framework in collaboration with the international community, and come up with practical mechanisms to enhance security in the region's coastline", Kibaki said. But he said also that hijackings would continue until there was stability in Somalia. But stability would not come until the security council sends peacekeepers, which it has been reluctant to do in the face of escalating violence. Most experts, however, believe that any attack on MV FAINA would trigger a disaster-response the pirates have prepared for and therefore must be ruled out.

Russia's foreign minister says his ministry and the Russian Navy are both trying to resolve the hijacking of a Ukrainian cargo ship. Russia has sent a guided missile frigate — the Neustrashimy — to join warships from other nations that have surrounding the MV FAINA off the Somali coast. The ITAR-Tass news agency quotes Sergey Lavrov as saying Tuesday that Russia is "watching the situation hourly and trying to influence it". Lavrov also suggested Russia was involved in negotiating the release of the captives, saying only that "any negotiations are highly sensitive".

Asked what involvement, if any, has the – did the U.S. Government have in that arms shipment, U.S. deputy spokesman Robert Wood stated: "I’m not aware of any U.S. involvement in the shipment ...– I would refer you to the Pentagon for any further – or any update on that situation. As far as I know, we had no idea those arms were going".

Most interesting is that mainstream media and politicians who unisono termed Somali "piracy" as terrorism since it made headlines, are now quick to brand it as "coastal crime", because they learned only now how dangerous all this terrorism talks are, if one has to free hostages and only slowly realize what a great disservice it is to mark these cases as war-crimes, acts of war or terrorism, also in legal terms, where one has to distinguish between criminal acts of hi-jacking an otherwise legally operating ship and impounding an illegally operating fishing-trawler or weapons- and drugs-carrier. It shows also how little attention ethical values in this whole discussion had so far - and from that the abducted seafarers suffer the most because their political or media "liberators" mostly do not even know what they are talking about.

Other news -----

While an Italian-operated cargo ship with 26 crew managed to escape a pirate attack in the same area, MV YASA NESLIHAN was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden on 29th October with a total crew of 20 seafarers of Turkish nationality. The Marshall Islands-flag MV YASA NESLIHAN is an 82,849 dwt, 2005 built bulk carrier is operated by Turkey's Ya/Sa Shipping Industry & Trading SA. Yasa Ship Management’s legal consultants, Istanbul-based Ulgener is taking all possible steps to secure the lives of the crew members. The ship was carrying a cargo of iron ore from Canada to China. The MV YASA NESLIHAN is classed by Nippon Kaiji Kyokai and insured by the UK P&I Club, while its registered owner, Marshall Islands-based Nouvelle Shipmanagement Co. Yasa Shipping & Trade, is part of Yasa Holdings which also owns Yasa Tanker & Transporation, currently operating a fleet of 15 bulkers. Turkish authorities are in contact with "various authorities" to find a way to rescue the ship but have had no contact with the pirates. Under the request of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NATO forces join the rescue operation of the crew on the hijacked cargo ship. Turkish officials are trying to work out a solid plan to rescue the hostages alive as the hijacked ship is still navigating offshore of Somalia. Local sources report the ship is heading towards Eyl. Reportedly the hijacking is part of a very recent surge of incidents in the region following a short lull in piracy incidents, possibly due to adverse weather conditions.

U.S. navy's Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, commander of Combined Maritime Forces, said Wednesday that at least five commercial ships have repelled pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia on Tuesday through evasive maneuvering and by blasting the pirates' boasts with fire hoses. It added that the crew on board the ships stuck to their defense tactics in spite of firing by the pirates on at least two instances. U.S. Central Command has formed the Maritime Security Patrol Area, comprised of air and naval assets, to battle pirates from Somalia. MPSA has been augmented by warships from allied countries and operations are to be directed by Combined Task Force-150. The U.S.-led Combined Maritime Forces has no formal agreement with other navies, but Gortney said "they have been communicating with each other and sharing information to more effectively patrol the area".

A wave of suicide car bomb attacks with a total of so far 37 deaths rocked Somalia on 29th October. Five near-simultaneous suicide bomb attacks, including one on an Ethiopian embassy and one on a United Nations compound, happened in the breakaway northern state of Somaliland and in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland. Three bombings happened in in the town of Hargeysa, Somaliland in the morning and two in Bosaso, the coastal town of the semi-autonomous state of Puntland, where the two separate offices of the Puntland Intelligence Service were hit by car bombs. At least 31 people, including two foreigners, were killed in the bombings in Somaliland and around 40 wounded are treated, while 6 people were killed in Puntland with another 13 severely injured and dozens harmed. In Hargeysa fourteen people were killed at the presidential compound, UN officials said, and a total of 16 at the UN compound and the embassy. "The UN confirms that at approximately at 10am this morning the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) compound ... was hit by an explosion, caused by a vehicle which forced entry into the compound," the office of the UN esident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia said in a statement. Among the victims in Somaliland was President Dahir Riyale Kahin's secretary who died in one of the blast, but the president was not hurt. "I was in my office on the other side of the palace when this huge explosion rocked the whole compound," presidential palace employee Mohamed Isa said. "The ceiling collapsed over me and clouds of smoke filled the building. The suicide bomber's vehicle was fortunately blocked by another car and could not reach any further area but burning shrapnel and human remains were found some 100 metres away," he added. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

These 5 bombings mark a significant change in Somalia's history, where suicide bombings had not occurred yet. The bodily remains of the suicide bombers in Bosaso let locals believe the attackers are not from the region itself, but supposedly from the Ogaden area. Massive security reinforcements were deployed in Puntland and Somaliland on Thursday.

The crew of a Spanish Air Force Lockheed Orion P-3 maritime patrol plane successfully thwarted an attack by Somali pirates on a Panamanian-registered oil tanker MT LEANDER in the Gulf of Aden on 28th October. When they arrived on the scene to investigate after picking up an emergency distress message, they saw that the tanker was about to be boarded by two groups of pirates in Zodiac dinghies. To repel the pirates, the pilot completed three low-level passes while his crew bombarded them with smoke bombs. Since the start of its mission on September 21st, the Orion P-3 has clocked up 237 hours, and is in daily contact with all the Spanish fishing vessels in the area, keeping them up to date with possible pirate activity.

The European parliament says piracy should be redefined as a criminal act rather than an act of war. Such a redefinition would help navies from around the world arrest pirates and bring them to justice, say the authors of a new parliament resolution. Definitions are further complicated by the ongoing debate on rights within and outside territorial waters. If pirates were found to have links with terrorists (which has not been the case until now) then ransom payments would become illegal under UK law. The parliament move comes as talks aimed at a new Security Council resolution on piracy continue. The resolution, passed by the parliament’s transport committee, says Euro MPs "regret" that a United Nations Security Council resolution aimed at tackling the piracy scourge off Somalia "has problematically treated acts of piracy as acts of war".

The government of South Korea has tentatively decided to send a gunboat to Somalia where Korean sailors are regularly kidnapped by pirates. A Foreign Ministry official on Wednesday said government agencies agreed to send a Navy ship to Somalia with a view to joining international efforts to maintain marine safety and protecting Korean ships from piracy. He said government agencies including the Defense Ministry which had been hesitant have now come round to the idea.

The UN Resolutions ignore the real causes of the problem, states the YEMEN TIMES, which calls this Western state’s intervention: "Another type of piracy" and says: The rage shown by some African countries toward the most recent UN Security Council’s Resolution is justified because the resolution ignored the real causes of the problem and focused on addressing its consequences. We know that poor living standards resulting from the Civil War in Somalia and intervention of Ethiopian troops, backed by the U.S. in Somali domestic conflicts and the UN and Arab League’s indifference toward ongoing sufferings of Somali people lead to illegal immigration of Somali citizens to other neighbouring states. Affected citizens resorted to such an illegal immigration to escape death while criminal groups turned to exploit lawlessness and people’s starvation and poverty to practice piracy operations in the Somali coastlines, the Arab Sea and the Red Sea.

Somali leaders were on Wednesday given tough conditions to fulfil in the next nine months or face severe action. President Abdullahi Yusuf, Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, National Assembly Speaker Sheikh Adan Madobe and MPs are to appoint a new Cabinet in 15 days. In addition, they are to establish a joint security body with the Islamic Courts Union before November 25 and establish Banadir administration which includes Mogadishu in two weeks. In a 21 point communiqué, six heads of State and Government of IIGAD also directed the Somali leaders to draft a new constitution, enact electoral and parties law in six months and submit progress reports every two months to IGAD Council of Ministers. Speakers severely reprimanded Somali leaders for "the complete failure to establish institutions of governance only nine months before the end of the transitional period". It is the progress that would determine whether the term of Transitional Federal Government would be extended, Presidents Kibaki (kenya), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) and Ismail Omar Guelleh (Djibouti) as well as Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said.

Yemen has hailed the signing of a ceasefire between the Somali Transition Government and opposition coalition that calls for halting all military operations as of 5 November 2008 and deploying joint forces from the government and opposition within 25 days, starting from the timing of the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces from the country. A source at the Foreign ministry has called on the Somali parties to implement the cease-fire and put their country interests ahead of their own ones.

Mrs. Jendayi Frazer, the assistant U.S. secretary of state for African affairs, who is in Nairobi rejected charges that U.S. policy in Somalia — which has included backing the Ethiopian invasion and launching several airstrikes on reported terrorist targets since last year, some of which reportedly have killed civilians — has contributed to the chaos. However, her claims that the suicide bombings in Northern Somalia were a work of Al-Qaeda was likewise rejected by many analysts, who suggested that the Hargeisa and Bosaso bombings have been carried out to disrupt the Nairobi talks. However, in Puntland Presidential adviser Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade was fast to tell AFP the bombers had been identified and were believed to have been trained by Al-Qaeda. What we have is that the attackers were trained by Al-Qaeda, according to the evidence we have collected, but investigations are still underway", he said. Other sources confirmed that a prominent cleric, Sheikh Mohamed Ismail, was arrested at his home.

Having just left from the French navy hospitality centre in Djibouti, the first of seven ships deployed by NATO in a joint mission termed "Operation Allied Provider" to fight piracy in the Indian Ocean off the Somalia coast has docked at the port of Mombasa for replenishment. Italian destroyer, MM Luigi Durand De La Penne is part of the NATO ships that had been dispatched to guard against piracy off the Somali Coast. The MM Luigi Durand De La Penne is a 5,000-tone multi-role warship able of air defence, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare operations for protecting task forces and convoys. The ship, captained by Mr Bisconti Pierro Fiederico, equipped with a helicopter deck and a hangar with facilities for two helicopters and stayed clear of the MV FAINA while passing.

The European Union announced that its flotilla will eventually take over duties from NATO ships in December and that it expected its air and sea operation to last a year. The EU statement said that the bloc's new flotilla would include four to six ships backed by three or four maritime patrol aircraft, and would be led by British Vice Admiral Philip Jones. The EU mission is expected to get the final green light from the 27 EU states at a meeting of foreign ministers next month. In any case, maritime experts are sceptical about the efficacy of the the NATO and EU missions, suggesting that they will only serve as band-aids until the root cause, namely the lawlessness throughout Somalia, can be addressed. European parliamentarians, for their part, state that European military forces are already overstretched to the snapping point. One parliamentarian pointed out that, as a result, European military operations are all "chronically underfinanced".

The Arab Peace and Security Council (APSC) on Monday discussed possible ways to fight Somali piracy, which threatens naval vessels crossing the Gulf of Aden at the Red Sea. The APSC maintained that securing the Red Sea was an Arab responsibility and therefore should not be internationalized. The participants at the meeting, which was headed by the Arab League's Secretary-General 'Amru Moussa, suggested that a pan-Arab peacekeeping naval force should be established to confront Somali pirates. Another suggestion was the establishment of marine police on the Red Sea, with the participation of all the surrounding countries. The suggestions will be raised at the next meeting of Arab foreign ministers. The APSC is scheduled to meet again next week to discuss the plans in depth.

Germany on 29th October approved a 13-month extension of its monitoring mission in the Gulf of Aden, though it lowered the number of troops allowed on the mission overall from 1,400 to 800. Germany currently has 90 soldiers in the region of the Horn of Africa. Germany will take over the leadership of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force for three months in January.

Legislation giving Britain's Royal Navy real but severely constrained rights to board, search and detain a ship of another flag state, and even to arrest people found on the vessel, through the enactment of the 2005 Protocol to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation into UK domestic law, is still far off. The hope is that the UK will have ratified the SUA 2005 protocols by the end of 2009, although sources stressed that the matter should not yet be regarded as a done deal and the powers will only apply once SUA 2005 comes into force internationally, which is 90 days after it has been ratified by 12 states. As of this month, only five states have taken this step. Moreover, the rights will only apply to ships flagged in ratifying countries and the flag state will be within its rights to decline, and must consent to any arrests.

British shipping employers and unions have agreed to declare the Gulf of Aden a warlike operations area, in a deal that will double the pay of seafarers on many ships operated from the UK while serving close to piracy prone Somalia. Although it is estimated that around half of all UK deepsea seafarers are already covered by a similar deal signed at the international level earlier this month, the practical impact of this latest move will be to extend the provisions to greater numbers. The UK agreement between the Chamber of Shipping, Nautilus UK and RMT applies to vessels that transit the Gulf of Aden between 45°E and 53°E, for such time as they are north of a straight line connecting Cape Guardafui and the western tip of the Island of Socotra.

Operators of any ships choosing not to use the MPSA - other than for reasons purely related to safety of life at sea, weather, navigational safety or military instructions - are asked to allow seafarers the right to sign off. The agreement - which has already taken effect - will be reviewed by the British Warlike Operations Area Committee (WOAC), a joint employer-union body, not later than 28 November 2008.

37th Update 2008-10-31 17:52:31 UTC

Ecoterra Intl. – Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast

Ecoterra International – Update & Media Release on the Stand-off Concerning the Ukrainian Weapons-ship Hi-jacked by Somali Pirates

New EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: +254-738-497979
East African Seafarers Assistance Programme - Media Officer: +254-733-385868

DAY 37 - 867 h into the FAINA Crisis – Update Summary

Increased efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now one month long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is still not yet solved, though intensive negotiations have continued and both sides are striving to finalize the modalities of the safe release of crew and vessel.

The ship owner stated on Friday to Russian news agency ITAR-TASS that the ownership and an intermediary are doing their best to agree with Somali pirates on the release of the ship and the crew. "Negotiations are dynamic. Certain problems derive from the lack of a coordinated position of the pirates and a number of factors that influence their mood and behaviour", the owner said. The owner refuted media reports that claimed alleged threats and violence against the Faina crew. "Such reports are groundless", the owner said. "The physical condition of the crew-members is satisfactory. The provision of food, water and fuel is discussed daily. The ship owner, the intermediary and other sides are doing their best to achieve a positive outcome and to speed up the release of the ship and crew-members on acceptable terms".

Russia hopes for happy ending of the FAINA situation, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on October 28. "We are watching the situation hourly and are trying to influence it", he said. "Both the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Navy are engaged in this effort". "The situation is difficult and unstable, but we hope that our efforts will be successful. Russia is working together with other countries," Lavrov said. "We understand the feelings of families. We have agreed to supply additional information to the Foreign Ministry’s St. Petersburg office, so that it convey negotiation details to the families," he said.

The US has asked Kenya and Ukraine officially to disclose the actual destination of the 33 T-72 tanks and ammunition aboard the hijacked Ukrainian ship moored off the coast of Somalia. "Kenya should say what is the destination of the weapons and Ukraine who are the exporters should say who they were exporting the weapons to", the US Under-Secretary of State for African Affairs, Dr Jendayi Frazer, said.

Other news

It seems that the owners of MT STOLT VALOR want to make their predictions that it would take another month to negotiate the release come true. Neither families, nor the governments and specifically not the hostages do understand the rationale, because the negotiator of the owner must know that with every day also the price gets higher.

Somali pirates are demanding a ransom of $5 million for the return of the 77,000-ton Turkish cargo ship YASA NESLIHAN and its 20 crew hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, Turkish newspaper reported.

Reported by LA Times, a man who described himself as the chief of the pirates holding the Ukrainian vessel, stated: "We have neither political nor religious ambition. We know it's illegal, but so is the foreign fishing and dumping of waste". The man, who would not give his name, said that even a North Atlantic Treaty Organization presence in the area would fail to deter him. "We will consider NATO as the enemy and take actions against the citizens of any of its member states", he said.

Somali pirates create booming business also for the insurers in London. Guillaume Bonnisent, K&R underwriter with Lloyd's insurance group Hiscox, said ship owners are also in search of specialist kidnap and ransom cover. He indicated that, "we've had over 50 different broking firms worldwide approach us on behalf of owners and managers seeking protection for vessels. Without a doubt the surge in piracy activity in the Gulf of Aden has been the catalyst for this increase. "Traditional marine cover will meet the cost of the ransom but none of the costs involved in the process. What we've found is the ransom can account for just 25 percent to 30 percent of the costs of the incident. Where K&R cover goes above the traditional marine policies is that it will become involved from the moment a vessel is seized.We'll provide a crisis management team and meet the costs of the security team that'll be needed to take the ransom to the Somali pirates". He added that the security team's fee can be more than the value of the ransom. Mariners, mercenaries and money-shakers all profit from the piracy business. It's high time that the only ones who really suffer - the seafarers - get a bigger part of the cake and the ones who pay the cost at the end, the consumers and tax-payers, have more say. The ones who suffer always opt for faster and thereby less costly release negotiations.

But the Diplomats and insurance negotiators in their air-conditioned offices take their time: With sea pirates holding 18 Indian sailors hostage for a month-and-a-half now, India today said it was working out a policy for international cooperation between navies to deal with the increasing threat of piracy in the high seas. "We cannot allow the situation (pirate attacks) to continue. There should be a solution to this. We must put a stop to this kind of piracy. So India is very much concerned", Defence Minister A K Antony told reporters, after attending the Naval Commanders Conference in Delhi. "So, in consultation with the Navy, the Defence Ministry has already taken up this matter with MEA (External Affairs Ministry). Through diplomatic channel, we are working on it and we are trying to find a procedure so that important navies of the world can act together in that area", Antony said, replying to questions on the government's response to the abducting of Japanese-owned merchant vessel STOLT VALOR with 18 Indian sailors on board. But, despite the presence of 69 warships of the US, Russia, Canada, United Kingdom and France along the African coast, pirates continued to attack ships sailing through the area in the Indian Ocean Region, Antony said.

Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein on Friday called for tougher action against the piracy off his country's coast that has choked commercial shipping. Although warships from US-led Combined Maritime Force and NATO are patrolling waters off Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, gangs are still attacking commercial freighters in the region. "Piracy should be eradicated by the involvement of all countries that are willing to help Somalia", Hussein told reporters in Nairobi. "My country is grateful to all those who have sent warships to Somali waters to fight piracy".

Iran signalled on 30th October its intention to extend its military presence in the world's most important oil conduit, opening a new naval base at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and adding weight to its threats to choke off oil supplies, if the Islamic Republic came under attack. The inauguration of the new base at Jask was announced by Iran's naval commander, Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, who said it represented a new line of defence, blocking the entry of the "enemy" into the Persian Gulf and the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, the gateway through which 40% of the world's traded oil passes each day. As international tensions have grown over Iran's nuclear programme and US allegations of Iranian involvement in Iraq's insurgency, the US has reinforced its naval presence, keeping two aircraft carriers and their battle groups in the Gulf for long periods this year, instead of one. The USS Ronald Reagan and USS Theodore Roosevelt carriers are currently on patrol, and being used for sorties over Iraq. Iranian naval doctrine is focused on asymmetric attacks against western navies using swarms of small high-speed fibreglass boats armed with anti-ship missiles under the command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The IRGC would rely on strength in numbers and surprise, calling it a "presence everywhere and nowhere doctrine".

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has also moved to bolster naval presence in the Gulf, signing a deal with Abu Dhabi to site a new base on the Emirate's coast. There is an ongoing dispute between Iran and Abu Dhabi over possession of three small islands in the Strait of Hormuz.

Note
Picture MV FAINA