Iranian media were largely silent yesterday on the US Navy’s rescue of 13 Iranians held by pirates in the Arabian Sea, making little mention of the incident — or that the US ships included an aircraft carrier Tehran had warned out of the region.
The official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported only that a US warship “claimed” to have saved the Iranian fishermen from a weeks-long ordeal as captives of Somalian pirates.
“So far, Islamic Republic of Iran’s armed forces staff has not confirmed” the incident, IRNA said.
Photo: Reuters
The US said the rescue took place on Thursday by the USS Kidd, one of several warships escorting the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, after the captain of the Iranian fishing dhow asked for help.
On Tuesday, Iranian military chiefs had warned the Stennis, which is currently attached to the US Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain, to stay out of the Gulf. Otherwise it would face the “full force” of Iran’s navy, spokesman Commodore Mahmoud Mousavi said.
A New York Times reporter and photographer, who were traveling on the Stennis, went aboard the Iranian fishing vessel, al-Mulahi, and spoke with its crew, as well as with several of the Somalians arrested by the US.
“It is like you were sent by God,” one of the Iranian fishermen, Fazel Ur Rehman, 28, was quoted as telling his US rescuers.
The captain, Mahmed Younes, 28, told the New York Times the pirates had captured his vessel in late November and had since been using it as a mother ship for their operations around the region.
Photographs of the Iranian dhow and crew, and of the arrested pirates, were published on the New York Times Web site.
A Pentagon spokesman, Captain John Kirby, said the Iranians and their dhow were released to make their way back to Iran, with fuel and provisions supplied by the Stennis’ carrier group.
The rescue came at a delicate time in the West’s longrunning showdown with Iran over its nuclear program, with Washington and its allies ramping up sanctions to try secure a change of heart from Tehran.
Iran has reacted by threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, which links the Gulf to the Arabian Sea, and has warned against the Stennis’ redeployment to the Gulf.
The US has said it will not tolerate any closure of the strait — through which 20 percent of the world’s oil flows — and has insisted that it will continue to deploy warships to the Gulf.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
RSS