Quote:
Originally Posted by JeanneP
Good news, but the thought that a country can arrest somebody for just sailing past the country is chilling.
Sometimes we were less than 1000 yards from the shore before tacking out again. Imagine if a hostile government decided to harass the boats from another country that way.
Iranian officials must be in a REALLY bad mood.
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Quick response:
A country is
NOT alowed to impede the safe navigation of a vessel through its territorial waters as the right of innocent passage is a fundamental pillar of UNCLOS (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). This, however, does not give the vessel transiting the waters of another state the right to enter inner waterways except when such are recognised passages through coastal waters. The waters of the Geat and Little Belts in Denmark are excellent examples of this. There are special limitations imposed on transiting warships.
The problem is that there is no sanction for coastal states not folowing the rules other than possible diplomatic intervention by the flag state, which in itself is reason enough not to register a vessel under a flag of convenience (FOC) although I am not so sure that many non-FOC states would do so much for their vessels' crews. The piracy debate is full of such examples.
Although not wihing to counter a question with another, are Iranian officials ever in anything but a bad mood? Who is going to sanction them? I don't think anyone suffering as a result from their actions will get very far by complaining to the Iranian State Ombudsman, assuming that there is such a thing in that country, which I sincerly doubt.
Aye // Stephen
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