Syrian arms sales: increased the pressure within Russia’s military establishment

Alexandria Egypt



 Israeli and American officials have urged Russia not to proceed with the sale of advanced S-300 air defense weapons. The Kremlin has yielded to American entreaties not to provide S-300s to Iran. But the denial of that sale, analysts say, has increased the pressure within Russia’s military establishment to proceed with the delivery to Syria.
[September 2 2010]
Defense Minister Ehud Barak is said to be concerned over the possibility that Russia will follow through with the delivery of the S-300 surface to- air defense system to Iran via Syria.

Russia has issued mixed messages regarding the future of the 2005 deal in recent months, first saying that the new round of sanctions on Iran passed by the United Nations in June would not impede the deal and later saying that it would.

Despite the Israeli objections, a top Russian official issued a statement on Sunday saying that Moscow would honor its deal with Syria.

“I would like to emphasize that the Russian Federation is fully honoring its earlier agreements with Syria,” Russian presidential aide Sergey Prikhodko told the Interfax news agency.

Deepwater Horizon: BP's former chief executive head of Xstrata

 Ivan Glasenberg two years ago selected Tony Hayward to back the group’s initial public offering: the Glencore chief executive sees the former BP chief executive as one of the best in the oil industry.

. They share a lifestyle that involves near-constant travel. Both had to work hard to climb the corporate ladder..

The personal connection was evident Thursday at the maiden annual meeting of Glencore Xstrata as an enlarged company in Zug, Switzerland, with both men seeming at ease with their respective roles as chief executive and interim chairman.

Yet few expect him to stay in the job for long. Genel, his post-BP vehicle, is his primary focus these days: the company is now the largest independent crude producer in Iraqi Kurdistan.

[May 16]

John Bond, a City veteran and former chairman of Xstrata, earlier surprised investors by announcing he had been voted out of the top job at the miner and trader at its first annual shareholders' meeting, which he then asked Tony Hayward, the former chief executive of BP to lead.

Bond, who had been expected to relinquish his role once a replacement was found, gave no explanation for the vote in Zug, Switzerland, which was presumably backed by Glencore executives who still own almost 25 percent of the company.

As interim chairman, Hayward, already senior independent director, is expected to lead the nominations committee which will pick a permanent replacement. The committee had until Thursday been chaired by Bond.

A new chairman is expected to be appointed by the end of the year, a second source with knowledge of the matter said.

For Hayward, who said he felt "demonized and vilified" over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, the appointment at Glencore is a return to the top at a major UK-listed resource firm.

[July 25 2010]
Tony Hayward, the embattled chief executive of BP, has agreed to step down and be replaced by Robert Dudley, the company’s most senior American executive who is now in charge of BP’s operations in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a person close to the company’s board.

USS George H. W. Bush: Northrop Grumman X-47B launches, does not land

The prototype X-47B took off successfully May 14 from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush in the Atlantic Ocean off Virginia and made two low approaches to the ship before heading back toward land.

The test aircraft, which has been designed and built by the weapons maker Northrop Grumman, isn't intended for operational use; instead, the military is using the information it gathers during these demonstrations to develop the drone program.

The Navy already operates two other unmanned aircraft: the small, low cost ScanEagle, which does not carry weapons; and the Fire Scout, which is armed but built more like a helicopter.

The program cost is $1.4billion over eight years. A planned variant of the craft, the X-47C will have a larger payload provision of 10,000lbs and a wingspan of 172ft.
[May 2]

The U.S. Navy is inaugurating its first squadron that mixes advanced unmanned drones with conventional aircraft.   The maritime strike squadron, nicknamed the "Magicians," will be officially launched at the Naval Air Station North Island on Coronado, near San Diego.   Along with eight manned helicopters, the squadron will include a number of unmanned helicopter drones, known as MQ-8B Fire Scouts, that can track targets at sea or on land.

[June 22 2011]
The aircraft was conducting a targeting mission, meaning it was using its onboard sensor package to lase a target for another aircraft, the program source says.

The aircraft was launched from the USS Halyburton frigate during a deployment to support anti-piracy and littoral missions around the Middle East. The ship was recently diverted to support the NATO mission in Libya, . Two Fire Scouts were deployed on the Halyburton earlier this year.

Last year, a Fire Scout lost communications with its ground station during a test flight out of NAS Patuxent River, Md. The incident drew national attention because an anomaly occurred that allowed the aircraft to slowly head into restricted airspace 40 mi. away from Washington, which is under strict airspace rules. Flight testing of the Fire Scout restarted last September after about a six-week testing pause owing to the incident; a fix has been implemented.

The testing standdown pushed back timing for a formal operational evaluation slated for last fall. Instead, Navy officials opted to deploy the Fire Scouts for operations on the Halyburton. Aviation Week
A team of Northrop Grumman engineers and operators on board the ship helped re-familiarize Navy operators with Fire Scout’s control systems. Northrop Grumman is the Navy’s Fire Scout prime contractor.
here

Iran oil STS transfers: Sambouk Shipping black-listed

5/9/2013

  

Action Identifies Front Company and Vessels Attempting to Obscure Iranian Oil Deals Using Ship-to-Ship Transfers and Designates Iranian Bank

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury is taking a number of actions today against Iranian attempts to circumvent international financial sanctions.  As part of the Treasury Department’s continuing vigilance against Iran’s efforts to use front companies and deceptive business practices to sell their oil on the international market, today Treasury identified Sambouk Shipping FZC as subject to sanctions under Executive Order (E.O.) 13599, which, among other things, targets the Government of Iran (GOI) and persons acting for or on behalf of the GOI.  Sambouk Shipping is tied to Dr. Dimitris Cambis who, along with a network of front companies, were sanctioned in March 2013 under E.O. 13599 and the Iran Threat Reduction Act and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012 (TRA) after the U.S. government uncovered Dr. Cambis’s scheme to evade international oil sanctions against Iran.  In an attempt to continue his scheme, Dr. Cambis is using the recently formed Sambouk Shipping to manage eight of the vessels that he operates on behalf of the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC).  These vessels have been used to execute ship-to-ship transfers of Iranian oil in the Persian Gulf.  These transfers are intended to facilitate deceptive sales of Iranian oil by obscuring the origin of that oil.

 Dimitris Cambis has been black-listed by U.S. Treasury, here 

- U.S. lawmakers will introduce a bill on February 27 that expands economic penalties against Iran and is designed to force countries like China to buy less Iranian crude oil

The legislation by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Republican Ed Royce of California and the panel's top Democrat Eliot Engel of New York builds on existing U.S. sanctions that have so far led to the devaluation of Iran's currency and slashed the country's main source of funding - oil revenues.

[February 26]

Glaros

 Leycothea

Nereyda

Ocean Nymph

Ocean Performer

Seagull

Ulysses I

Zap

Dimitris Cambis, President at Athene consulting house sa , 6, Vassilissis Sofias Ave. GR-10674 Athens, Greece +30 210 7263300 +30 210 7263399  ach@ach.gr who last year bought the ships - eight very large crude carriers, or VLCCs - to carry Middle East crude to Asia, flatly denied doing any business with Tehran or running clandestine shipments of its oil to China He denied his vessels have loaded oil from Iran while at anchor in the Gulf. Known as ship-to-ship transfers, or STS, such movements are hard to track as crews can switch off tracking beacons or not update their recorded positions for periods to conceal that one vessel has come alongside another.

IMCMEX 13 gets under weigh

HMS Cardigan Bay

International Mine Countermeasures Exercise 2013


IRGC exercise 2010







Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps started a series of tactical exercises in the Persian Gulf and strategic Strait of Hormuz early Thursday, April 21
"It's the IRGC navy…that will be more provocative in their maneuvers and in their potential interaction with shipping," here

Rig activity: deepwater Gulf

active

leased

$20 billion will be spent drilling development wells for deepwater projects through 2015. As many as 38 rigs are currently operating in the deepwater Gulf, and another eight rigs that are under construction could enter the market before the end of the year.  Energy companies continue to work the region, oil production from federal leases in the Gulf hit nearly 1.4 million barrels per day in February, up from 1.3 million barrels the year before.   Oil and gas exploration companies can only do as much work as there are rigs available.   On the other hand, the key for companies is that you don't want the rigs to idle out there because they're still paying the day rates whether they're drilling or not.

Chariot: ship in Syrian arms trouble abandoned?

in Spanish waters

"Notification Westberg Management AG, on the procedure for declaration of abandonment of the ship "M / S Chariot" IMD 8302882.

Mar 15, 2013 In order to complete the Article 59 of Law 30/92 of 26 November, on the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and the Common Administrative Procedure, as amended by Law 4/99, and after having tried at home notification declared WESTBERG MANAGEMENT AG, Majuro, Marshall Islands and as recorded in the Register of Ships of Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Marshall Islands, as the owner of the ship "Chariot" IMO: 8302882 initiation of proceedings for a declaration of abandonment is told the following :

NOTICE OF HEARING ON PROCESSING PROCEDURE STATEMENT ABANDON SHIP "M / S CHARIOT" IMD 8302882.

Once the period of notice of initiation of proceedings to abandon ship "Chariot" reached port and the appointment of instructor and secretary in ..."

[January 31 2012]

MOSCOW, January 31 (RIA Novosti)The Syrian Ambassador to Russia denied Western media reports that a Russian [SVG-flag] ship reportedly carrying weapons had docked in a Syrian port A ship suspected of carrying tons of munitions bound for Syria was freed to leave a port in Cyprus after changing its destination. The Cypriot Foreign Ministry confirms a Russian ship suspected of supplying arms to the Assad regime in Syria had been released from port, after a brief detention by authorities.

The ship was forced to dock for refueling Tuesday at Limassol in western Cyprus, following bad weather. Local media reported at least 35 tons of munitions and explosive material were onboard, with a Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement confirming customs officials had discovered four containers and a generator in the hold.

The statement added that the ship, identified as the Saint Vincent-flagged MV Chariot, also contained “a dangerous cargo.” The ship, which left the Russian port of St. Petersburg on December 9, has been refueled and will set sail when the rough weather in the eastern Mediterranean calms.

According to the Foreign Ministry statement, it was agreed that the ship would sail to an alternative location and not Syria, but details of the new destination have not been disclosed. The government of Cyprus, which is an European Union member, insisted the ship had not breached the terms of the EU ban on sending arms to Syria. The statement also confirmed that port officials had not been able to check the entire cargo due to tight packing in the hold of the vessel. The Russian-owned ship that was briefly detained in Cyprus for carrying munitions to Syria a week ago, docked in the Turkish port of Alexandretta after first travelling to Syria, according to Turkish news reports. A TURKISH foreign ministry official stated that the Russian ship carrying arms to Syria anchored off Turkey’s port of Alexandretta on Saturday,

Turkish daily Today’s Zaman reported that Turkish officials said the Chariot, suspected of delivering munitions to Syria, had anchored off Turkey's coast, Selcuk Unal, the Turkish foreign ministry official, said Turkish coast guard and customs officials would board the Chariot before allowing it to dock at the port of Alexandretta (Iskenderun).

Unal said the ship left the Syrian port of Tartus early on Saturday and reached Turkey later in the day. He said the Chariot’s captain confirmed the ship had arrived from Syria. But it remained unclear what type of cargo, if any, the ship may have offloaded at Tartus. On January 13, the US said it had sought clarifications from both Russia and Cyprus over the ship, which sources said contained a cargo of bullets. here

8302882 CHARIOT OYID2 General Cargo Ship 922 1984 Ex Names History Vessel's Name Flag Call Sign CHARIOT St Vincent Grenadines J8B4413 MALENE Denmark OYID2 2009-02-13 18:00 MS MALENE Denmark OYID2 2009-01-30 05:38 MARKLAND SAGA 1990-09-22 00:00

16-03-2011 General cargo Chariot was attacked by pirates in 12 018N 066 143E on Mar 5 2011 at around 1940 LT, pirates used new tactics – there was a decoy attack by a white skiff, departing from mother-ship and attracting attention of vessel under attack, while real attacking skiff with 6 pirates approached vessel from stern port side, skiff was camouflage-painted. There were 4 armed guards on board, Russian Spetsnaz vets, after gunfire exchange pirates ceased attack and returned to mother ship, not dhow but apparently one of the highjacked ocean-going freighters, of more than 100 meters length, with two cranes. Chariot IMO 8302882, dwt 1302, built 1984, flag S-Vincent, owner Westberg S-Petersburg, Russia.

What are nice Spetsnez vets doing on a boat like this?