Antony News

Chinese officials have asked their Iranian counterparts to help rein in attacks on ships in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Houthis, or risk harming business relations with Beijing, four Iranian sources and a diplomat familiar with the matter said.The discussions about the attacks and trade between China and Iran took place at several recent meetings in Beijing and Tehran, the Iranian sources said, declining to provide details about when they took place or who attended."Basically, China says: 'If our interests are harmed in any way, it will impact our business with Tehran.

When the United States and 11 allies published a joint statement last week calling for an end to Houthi attacks from Yemen on Red Sea shipping, they hoped the implicit threat of force might at least reduce the intensity of fire on foreign vessels.Instead, Wednesday saw the largest single attack yet on foreign vessels, according to Western defence officials, launched seven days after the joint statement. It appeared a clear attempt to call the West's bluff, just as other tensions across the Middle East appear to be on the rise.In Iraq and Syria, U.S.

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on hundreds of people and entities, including in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, as it targets Russia's sanctions evasion, future energy capabilities, banks and its metals and mining sector.The U.S. Treasury and State departments targeted more than 250 individuals and entities in Washington's latest action attempting to crack down on Russia and its evasion of sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies over the war in…

The United States is reviewing "potential terrorist designations" for Yemen's Houthi rebel group in response to its seizure of a cargo ship, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday.Kirby's comment was significant because one of the Biden administration's first acts after taking office in January 2021 was revoking terrorist designations of the Houthis over fears the sanctions they carried could worsen Yemen's humanitarian crisis.The Iran-backed Houthis…

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken briefly stopped over in Cyprus on Sunday where a Cypriot proposal to establish a maritime aid corridor to Gaza was discussed, Cypriot officials said.Blinken made the unannounced stopover over at Larnaca airport on his way to Turkey in a tour of the region.

The United States on Friday opened its northernmost diplomatic station, highlighting the increased importance of the Arctic region for Washington at a time when cooperation among Arctic nations has been hit by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the opening of the station, in Tromsoe, Norway, in June, as a means for the United States to have a "diplomatic footprint above the Arctic Circle"."Symbolically, it is significant," Andreas Oesthagen…

The United Nations said on Friday it had completed the removal of more than 1 million barrels of oil from a decaying supertanker off Yemen's Red Sea coast, averting a potential environmental disaster.U.N. officials and activists have been warning for years that the entire Red Sea coastline was at risk, as the rusting Safer tanker could have ruptured or exploded, spilling four times as much oil as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska.The war in Yemen caused the suspension of maintenance operations on the Safer in 2015.

As part of a joint military exercise with the Philippines, the U.S. Navy is slated to sink a mock warship on April 26, 2023, in the South China Sea.The live-fire drill is not a response to increased tensions with China over Taiwan, both the U.S. and the Philippines have stressed. But, either way, Beijing isn’t happy – responding by holding its own staged military event involving actual warships and fighter jets deployed around Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing claims as its own.The tit-for-tat war games underscore a reality that U.S.

A fire that engulfed hundreds of shipping containers at Turkey's Iskenderun Port after massive earthquakes in the region has been extinguished, the defense ministry said on Tuesday, but it was not clear when operations would resume at the port.Turkey's maritime authority said on Monday that the port, located on the Mediterranean coast in the southern province of Hatay, was damaged due to the earthquake that struck Turkey and neighboring Syria.Drone footage showed fierce flames blackening hundreds of containers on the dock…

Hundreds of shipping containers were ablaze at Turkey's Iskenderun Port on Tuesday, shutting down operations and forcing freight liners to divert vessels to other ports.Turkey's maritime authority said on Monday that the port, located on the Mediterranean coast in the southern province of Hatay, was damaged due to the earthquake that struck Turkey and neighbouring Syria.Drone footage showed fierce flames blackening hundreds of containers on the dock, with water jets from a fire truck dwarfed by the scale of the blaze that broke out on Monday.

The United Nations, Turkey, and Ukraine are pressing ahead to implement a Black Sea grain deal with a transit plan in place for 16 ships on Monday, despite Russia suspending its participation in the pact that has allowed the export of Ukrainian agricultural products to world markets.Russia, which invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, halted its role in the Black Sea deal on Saturday for an "indefinite term" because it said it could not "guarantee safety of civilian ships" travelling under the pact after an attack on its Black Sea fleet.The United Nations and Turkey…

The United States on Friday imposed new sanctions following North Korea's latest missile launches this week, targeting a fuel procurement network that Washington said supports Pyongyang's weapons programs and its military.Friday's action targeted two Singapore-registered companies and a Marshall Islands-registered firm, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement, as Washington seeks to hold North Korea accountable for ship-to-ship transfers that circumvent United Nations sanctions on the country."By designating these entities and individuals, the United States is sending a clear message that we will continue to take actions against those who support the development and sustainment of the DPRK’s military and weapons arsenal," U.S.

An innovative wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) design from Houston-based naval architecture and marine engineering firm Friede & Goldman (F&G) has earned approval in principle from classification society DNV.The review and AIP confirms that F&G's Windsetter 156 Class WTIV with optional BargeRack feeder barge system design complies with applicable DNV classification rules and statutory requirements.The WTIV design is suitable for all offshore wind markets globally and was…

Russian missiles hit Ukraine's southern port of Odesa on Saturday, the Ukrainian military said, threatening a deal signed just a day earlier to unblock grain exports from Black Sea ports and ease global food shortages caused by the war.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the strike blatant "barbarism" showing Moscow could not be trusted to implement the deal. However, public broadcaster Suspilne quoted the Ukrainian military as saying the missiles had not caused significant…

Washington will defend treaty ally the Philippines if its forces are attacked in the South China Sea, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said, urging China to follow international law and cease "provocative behavior" in the busy waterway.Blinken made the comments on Monday, the sixth anniversary of a ruling by an international tribunal that invalidated China's sweeping claims to the South China Sea, a conduit for about $3 trillion worth of ship-borne trade each year."We re-affirm that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces ... would invoke U.S.

Tanker vessels may face challenges calling California when new emissions regulations take effect, according to a new DNV report.The report, commissioned by Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), indicates tanker vessels and terminals in California could struggle to meet the 2020 amendments to California Air Resources Board's (CARB) Ocean-Going Vessels At-Berth Regulation. DNV's technology assessment looked at the feasibility of the current technologies developed around emissions…

Iran urged Greece on Tuesday to cooperate to resolve a crisis over the seizure of ships without involving the United States, after Iranian forces seized two Greek tankers in the Gulf following the seizure of an Iranian vessel off Greece.Tehran seized the Greek ships on Friday after Athens impounded the Iranian-flagged Pegas in April. The United States, which has imposed a tough sanctions regime on Iran, confiscated the Iranian oil cargo that was on the Pegas.U.S. and Greek diplomats have called on Iran to immediately release the Greek tankers, their cargoes and their crews. U.S.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday condemned the "unjustified seizure" of two Greek-flagged vessels by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard last week, the State Department said.Iranian forces seized two Greek tankers in the Gulf on Friday, shortly after Tehran warned it would take punitive action against Athens over the confiscation of Iranian oil by the United States from a tanker held off the Greek coast. "Iran's continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights and freedoms are a threat to maritime security and the global economy…

Ukraine is seeking ways to get grain and vegetable oils out of the country by breaking a months-long blockade of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea by the Russian navy and moving more by land.The war, together with Western sanctions against Russia, have sent the price of grain, cooking oil, fertilizer, and energy soaring.That in turn, is threatening a global food crisis as many countries count on Russia and Ukraine for more than half of their wheat imports, including some of the poorest.Russia and Ukraine together account for nearly a third of the global wheat supply…

Russia said on Thursday the flagship of its Black Sea fleet was seriously damaged and its crew evacuated following an explosion that a Ukrainian official said was the result of a missile strike.Russia's defence ministry said a fire on the Moskva missile cruiser caused ammunition to blow up, Interfax news agency reported.It did not say what caused the fire but Maksym Marchenko, the Ukrainian governor of the region around the Black Sea port of Odesa, said the Moskva had been hit…

Oil prices spiked to their highest levels since 2008 on Monday as the United States and European allies weighed a Russian oil import ban and delays in the potential return of Iranian crude to global markets fuelled supply fears.In the first few minutes of trade Brent crude reached $139.13 and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) hit $130.50, both benchmarks striking their highest levels since July 2008.By 1017 GMT, prices had lost some of those gains, with Brent up $6.60, or 5.6%…

Russian troops were in the center of the Ukrainian port of Kherson on Thursday after a day of conflicting claims over whether Moscow had captured a major urban center for the first time in its eight-day invasion.Russia's defense ministry said it had captured Kherson on Wednesday but an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy responded that Ukrainian forces continued to defend the Black Sea port of about 250,000 people."We are a people who broke the enemy's plans in a week," Zelenskiy said in a video address.

Turkey is calling on all sides in the Ukraine crisis to respect an international pact on passage through the Turkish straits to the Black Sea, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar was cited as saying on Tuesday after Ankara closed access.NATO ally Turkey borders Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea and has good ties with both. Under the 1936 Montreux Convention, Ankara has the right to limit transit through its Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits during wartime.This allows it to curb Russian warships going to the Black Sea.