Ситуация в мире становится все более и более неспокойной. К старым проблемам добавляются новые. Об этом свидетельствуют аналитические статьи, автором которых является Stephen Spark.
Коалиция арабских государств во главе с Саудовской Аравией продолжает ведение военных действий против Йемена, в частности, морские порты Йемена подвергаются блокаде и бомбардировке. В связи с этим йеменские порты следует признать небезопасными. Страховщики отказываются страховать находящиеся там суда.
Исключительная экономическая зона Сомали признается открытым морем в целях борьбы с пиратством. Американский суд в Вирджинии, США, подтвердил позицию США, заключающуюся в том, что море за пределами 12-ти миль от берега – это открытое море, поскольку территориальное море не может быть шире 12 морских миль.
The Saudi Arabian-led coalition of anti-Houthi forces attacking Yemen has tightened the blockade on Yemen’s ports. Ships are unlikely to be able to access ports in areas that the coalition deems to be under Houthi rebel control.
In an urgent member advisory, Skuld P&I Club yesterday warned: “an increasingly tight blockade is being affected [sic] on Yemeni ports. Members with vessels at Yemen, or proceeding to Yemen need to urgently review the situation in the light of this development.” Coalition warships are especially focusing on vessels that may have called recently at Iranian or Iraqi ports, it stated.
UK P&I Club’s website noted: “The Arabian Coalition forces do not allow any vessels, coming from Bab-el-Mandeb to enter the Yemeni territorial waters without permission.” In particular, the port of Al Hudaydah (Hodeida), which has served as the main port of exodus for foreign nationals, is now closed to commercial shipping.
The club stated that a ship approaching the port was “contacted by a coalition warship and advised that entry to any Yemeni port (especially Hodeidah) is strictly prohibited. The coalition warship has not allowed the vessel to drop anchor, instructing it to proceed to a position 30 40nm from the entrance of the port.”
North of England Club’s advisory said that coalition forces had boarded several of its members’ vessels, giving weight to maritime operations company Dryad Maritime’s warning that “a more aggressive naval blockade is likely in the future”. The situation will probably continue to worsen before it stabilises, Dryad predicted.
Any vessel currently berthed in a Yemeni port should consider raising its ISPS level to 3, Skuld advised. Ships still intending to go to Yemen should review their charterparty terms and inform hull, war and P&I insurers.
Yesterday, AIS data showed several vessels anchored off the Saudi coast. Panama-flagged bulker Anassa, for example, was scheduled to arrive at Al Hudaydah on Wednesday, but on Saturday was still stopped in the middle of the Red Sea off Farasan. Nearby, Barbados-registered bulker Lycavitos, carrying 47,250 tonnes of wheat, was also stopped after being denied entry to the port of Al Salif, north of Al Hudaydah. Reuters reported that Lycavitos’s Yemeni agent, Ocean Marine Services, had urged the port authority to allow the ship to unload on the grounds that import-dependent Yemen urgently needed the supplies for humanitarian reasons.
According to Reuters, shipowners and operators – including Maersk, MSC, CMA CGM and Evergeen are diverting to safer ports in the region. Container ships, bulkers and tankers are all said to be affected. By Thursday, Yemen LNG’s Balhaf plant had reduced production as ships due to load there turned round en route.
The news agency quoted BIMCO as saying: “If a port is taken/held by the Houthis and a ship is seen to be supplying the rebels, the ship could be at risk from air strikes or indeed naval action from the coalition.” Insurers are said to be refusing to cover vessels berthing in Yemen’s ports.
The port city of Aden continues to come under air and naval bombardment, while street fighting with tanks and rocket-propelled grenades has reduced many of the historic buildings near the port to ruins. Some days ago, an Indian citizen working on Sierra Leone-flagged 4,260gt tanker Gulf Dove in Aden was killed by a bomb blast, The Times of India reported.
As Reuters today warned that the war threatens to turn Yemen into a failed state, Dryad recommended shipowners, operators and masters to give Yemen “as wide a berth as possible”. Skuld told its members to “instruct the master to prioritise the safety of the crew and vessel”.
Автор: Stephen Spark
Источник: http://www.ihsmaritime360.com/article/17447/war-turns-yemeni-ports-and-waters-into-no-go-zones?utm_campaign=%5bPMP%5d_PC5415_M360_15_04_14_IH_Deployment&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua
Somalia’s exclusive economic zone counts as the high seas for the purposes of piracy law.
That was the conclusion reached in last week’s appeal by Abukar Osman Beyle and Shani Nurani Shiekh Abrar against their August 2013 conviction for piracy.
The pair were handed multiple life sentences by a court in Virginia, USA, for their part in the murder of four US citizens, who were seized aboard their yacht, Quest, by a Somali pirate gang on 18 February 2011. The 14 pirates planned to abduct the Americans and hold them for ransom on land but were intercepted by guided missile destroyer USS Sterett.
Four days later, when it became obvious that their plan had been foiled, Beyle, Abrar and Ahmed Muse Salad shot the hostages. The murders occurred about 30 40nm from the coast of Somalia.
The jury found Salad, Beyle and Abrar guilty on 26 counts of murder, kidnapping, piracy and possession of firearms. Each received three concurrent life sentences, 18 back-to-back life sentences and 30 years in jail.
In his appeal, Beyle argued that, under a 1972 law, Somali territorial waters extended 200nm from the shore. Because the incident took place within Somalia’s jurisdiction, the US courts were ineligible to try him, Beyle maintained.
Courthouse News Service noted that the pirate based his argument on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which refers to an exclusive economic zone extending “beyond a nation’s territorial sea but within two hundred nautical miles of the coastal baseline”.
US Circuit Judge J Harvie Wilkinson III rejected the plea, saying, “almost all of the treaty’s high-seas provisions apply with equal force inside the EEZ as they do outside it”. He reiterated the US position that a country’s territorial waters extend only to 12nm from the shore. Maritime areas beyond this 12nm limit are counted as “the high seas” and susceptible to international jurisdiction for the purposes of piracy prosecution.
The limits of a state’s jurisdiction over the contiguous zone (12 24nm from the shore) and its EEZ have been hotly debated in India with respect to the Enrica Lexie and Seaman Guard Ohio cases.
Автор: Stephen Spark
Источник: http://www.ihsmaritime360.com/article/17449/high-seas-ruling-sinks-pirate-pair-s-appeal?utm_campaign=%5bPMP%5d_PC5415_M360_15_04_14_IH_Deployment&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua