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?

Chariot: Russian-owned vessel back in Aegean

After a dash for Russian waters, the vessel turned around and is past Izmir headed towards Turkey again. Chariot’s captain earlier confirmed the ship had arrived in Turkey from Tartus, Syria. Sources said last week in Cyprus at least 35 tons of munitions and explosive material were discovered and in Turkey that the vessel contained a cargo of bullets. Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said his country is not violating any international obligations by selling weapons to Damascus. "As of today there are no restrictions on our delivery of weapons," he told journalists in Russia, according to the country's state news agencies. "We must fulfill our obligations and this is what we are doing." "I found him relaxed and sure. He is confident in the Russian position," Wahhab told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar in an interview with Assad in Damascus published February 2. back

Monchegorsk: Cyprus explosion WikiLeaks

US GOVERNMENT cables disclosed by WikiLeaks earlier this week depict a Cyprus government overwhelmed by the Monchegorsk incident of early 2009, with Nicosia said to be “looking for a way out” of a diplomatic nightmare that had snuck up on it.

Those are the broad strokes. But the WikiLeaks documents - classified communications between the State Department and the US Embassy in Nicosia - provide a blow-by-blow account of what was transpiring behind the scenes.

A cable dated January 29, 2009, from then US Ambassador to Cyprus Frank Urbancic, reads: “The RoC [Republic of Cyprus] is clearly feeling the heat and wants to avoid a confrontation with Syria and Iran. [Leonidas] Pantelides [head of the President’s diplomatic office] worries, with reason, that the Monchegorsk incident will break soon into the contentious Cypriot press, and he is looking for a way out before it becomes an embarrassment to the government.”

A subsequent cable, dated 16 April 2009, looks back to Cyprus’ cooperation with the international community as having been “half-hearted.” It reads: “Cyprus's new direction under Christofias has made final resolution of the M/V Monchegorsk incident problematic. Only a full-court international press from the UN Security Council and EU convinced Cyprus to summon the vessel to port for a more thorough inspection and eventual seizure of the cargo.

“Subsequent RoC cooperation with the UN's Iran Sanctions Committee (ISC) has been half-hearted…”

In a cable (January 27, 2009) titled “Cyprus Washing Hands of M/V Monchegorsk?” from the US Embassy here to the State Department, Urbancic attributes Cyprus’ dithering to fears of “Cyprus Problem-related ‘reprisals’ from Damascus”. He goes on to add that Nicosia “hopes to avoid having to interdict and/or divert to an RoC port the M/V Monchegorsk.”

In the same communication, Urbancic says Pantelides informed him that “Cyprus had requested the ship's owner to radio the master to divert to Limassol, but as yet had received no response. ‘This is all that we can do’, Pantelides insisted.”

The cable notes, however, that the US National Security Agency, which was tracking the ship’s communications, discovered otherwise: “NSA contacts report the ship has not received or transmitted radio messages recently.”

Further on, Urbancic comments on why Cyprus was getting “cold feet” (his words): “Greek Cypriots learn Security Council resolutions like others learn their ABCs - early and by heart. No country pays more lip service to their status at the top of the international pyramid. Why, then, the seeming disregard for RoC obligations under 1747 and 1803?”

He goes on: “Contacts ranging from President Christofias to worker bees at the MFA [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] informed us that Cyprus's 2006 decision to interdict the M/V Gregorio, a vessel carrying missile radar equipment from North Korea to Syria, had caused grave damage to its bilateral relations with Damascus. The Syrians had responded by green-lighting regular ferry service between Latakeia and the ‘occupied’ port of Famagusta in the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.’ Highest-level RoC entreaties have failed to compel Damascus to end the sea link, one of the few clear diplomatic blows the Cypriots have taken recently. They worry that further government action against the Monchegorsk might provoke Damascus to take further steps to ‘upgrade’ the

‘TRNC’.”

The leaked US government documents also shed light on some Cypriot officials’ belief that the Syrians would not back off their demands. Dionysis Dionysiou, Middle East Desk Officer at the Foreign Ministry, who had accompanied former Foreign Minister Erato Markoulli on an official visit to Damascus in late 2007, was convinced the Syrians were playing “hardball”. According to Dionysiou’s reading of the situation, “They [the Syrians] felt they had Cyprus in a corner, emboldened by the RoC recently having broken EU consensus to support a UNGA resolution on the Golan Heights. No end-state other than an RoC decision to let the vessel proceed to Latakeia would satisfy the SARG [Syria], Dionysiou predicted. Should that not occur, the Syrians would look to upgrade further their relations with the breakaway ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’, and lobby hard on the ‘TRNC's’ behalf within the OIC [Organisation of the Islamic Conference].”

Focus then shifted on the fate of the ship’s cargo, with Nicosia insisting that any actions it takes must have “UN cover”.

With pressure mounting on Cyprus to take decisive action, the government came up with this idea. According to Urbancic, Pantelides “floated the possibility of transferring the cargo to the United Nations in some creative way. UNFICYP likely was out, owing to its restrictive mandate; also, transfer to UNFICYP likely would require bringing the materiel on land, which the government hoped to avoid. But might UNIFIL [the UN force in Lebanon] be a possibility? Pantelides ventured. That UN mission runs its sea operations out of Limassol. He questioned whether the Monchegorsk's haul could be transferred to a German ship operating under the UN flag, and taken out of Cyprus.”

Urbancic said he “welcomed the creative thinking and promised to follow up with Washington. He emphasized that the aim of the USG was not to punish Cyprus, but to prevent an illegal Iranian arms export.”

The cables also shed light on the US’ carrot-and-stick approach toward Cyprus. On January 29, 2009, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton advised the US Embassy here:

“If the ship arrives in Syria, without the ROC's best efforts to support the relevant UNSCRs, the USG would not be able to portray the ROC's actions in the most positive light,” Clinton says.

Meanwhile, the Syrians were working in the wings to influence Cyprus’ decision. An Urbancic email dated January 30, 2009 informs that “Damascus had deployed a high-level envoy to Nicosia, the Syrian Deputy FM, who was applying significant pressure to allow the vessel to depart for Latakeia.”

Urbancic notes that Cypriot maritime officials had conducted a cursory check of the Monchegorsk and discovered significant quantities of high explosives that were “clearly military in nature”.

He goes on to summarise the Cypriot approach: “Should the RoC's attorneys determine the cargo was subject to UNSC sanctions, the overarching Cypriot desire was to remove it soonest from the island, owing to ‘heavy pressure’ from Damascus and Teheran.”

A February 2 cable from the US Embassy describes a conversation between Pantelides and Urbancic: “Pantelides was more blunt than usual in replying. ‘Cyprus will not be able to withstand the pressure much longer, and has to find a way out,’ he claimed, noting that Monchegorsk stories were now dominating local media.”

Pantelides conveyed also to the US Ambassador that “there was no doubt the Monchegorsk was carrying proscribed materiel. That said, Cyprus needed ‘a blue flag (United Nations) solution,’ or otherwise would prefer to send the cargo back to source country Iran.”

On February 13 the ship finally docked at the port of Limassol: “Unloading of the vessel commenced at 0800 and ended at 1030; Emboffs [US Embassy officials] counted 98 containers off-loaded. Port authority contacts report that many of them will remain at quayside for an indeterminate time, as limited truck availability will make cargo transfer to the naval facility at Mari a lengthy and complex undertaking..”

On the same day “a mid-level Foreign Ministry contact told PolChief [US Embassy Political Chief] …that the government was pleased with recent developments on the Monchegorsk matter, as were ‘all major players.’ Pressed to confirm that that list included Syria and Iran, the Cypriot diplomat nodded affirmatively and added, ‘it seems so’.” here
earlier

Monchegorsk: Cypriot naval base explosion

The head of Cyprus' navy, Andreas Ioannides, was among 12 people killed when seized containers of gunpowder exploded its main base. The commander of the Evangelos Florakis base, Lambros Lambrou, also died.
The massive blast at the Evangelos Florakis naval base on the south coast killed at least 12 people and injured 59, state media reported.

The National Guard chief told public radio that the blasts struck among containers of Iranian munitions seized from Cypriot-flagged vessel M/V Monchegorsk in 2009.
here
more

earlier
and earlier

Arctic Sea: Russian spy still out there from Med

The laptop and "more than one" USB memory stick belonging to 54-year-old Christopher Robert Metsos U.S. authorities have requested .

The laptop and USB memory sticks were confiscated on June 29 when Metsos was arrested trying to board a flight to Budapest, Hungary. The items were not returned to Metsos after a Cyprus court released him on $33,000 bail on June 30, after which he promptly disappeared.

Arctic Sea: Russian Spy from Med still loose

Christopher Robert Metsos is the spy who got away, Greek Cypriot officials believe he fled the divided island, and crossing into the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north may have offered an avenue of escape. But the U.S. Embassy said it had not asked Turkish Cypriot authorities for help in tracking the fugitive.
Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias has deflected U.S. Justice Department criticism over Metsos' release, saying U.S. authorities were slow in providing certain documents to Cypriot police.
Arctic Sea circles and circles and slows to 0.7 knots, does not enter Algeciras or Gibraltar.

Arctic Sea: Canadian spy goes missing in Med

Christopher Robert Metsos [or is it Christopher Robin?] a Canadian, perhaps, is on the Arctic Sea?

A Canadian man arrested in Cyprus on suspicion of being involved in a Russian spy ring in the United States went missing on Wednesday, just over 24 hours after a judge let him free on bail.


Oops - maybe not >>>>0.5 knots off beach