Thread by @PutinIsAVirus

With ECLIPSE transiting Gibraltar I'm getting tons of messages regarding her being seized while at sea.
Well, its called piracy and its a crime as per UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) or more generally, International Law.
Fast thread 🧵

https://twitter.com/PutinIsAVirus/status/1502642366611701766

Vessels in international waters cannot be attacked, inspected, seized etc. Same applies to vessels transiting straits (as Gibraltar), in which case even if technically inside the "territorial waters" of a country, they are protected by UNCLOS.

Even US can't stop sanctions violating Iranian tankers at sea. And while Gibraltar was the theatre of the seizing of GRACE 1 (#Iran) years ago, that happened because the tanker was stopping to "fill up" in the British waters (so technically it wasn't transiting)

There exceptions but this exceptions regard only UN mandated sanctions, so for example, when vessels where suspected of carrying weapons to Libya in violation of a UN resolution, inspections could be made even in international waters (operation IRINI did many)

There is also the case of US stopping a North Korean vessel, but also in that case the vessel was suspected of violating UN sanctions on North Korea weapons of mass destructions.

Sanctions on #Russia oligarchs are currently country (EU, US, UK) based and NOT from United Nations, meaning that vessels suspected of violating those sanctions are still protected by international law when in international waters.

So, basically, to stop / seize the #yacht of a #Russia oligarch, the vessel has to be within the territorial waters of a country which approved those sanctions (or allied with one that does).