Iran will pretend that the oil isn't going to Syria; and Britain will pretend to believe Iran:
Britain will facilitate the release of a seized Iranian tanker if Iran can provide guarantees the vessel would not breach European sanctions on oil shipments to Syria, Britain's top diplomat said late Saturday.
This is rather similar to the Obama administration's approach to a nuclear deal with Iran:
I don't bother speculating on the potential details. The big picture has always been clear to me.
The Iranians will pretend not to have a nuclear weapons program; and we will pretend to believe them.
Which makes sense, given that the ex-British ambassador to the United States believed the actual awful Iran nuclear deal was a good deal.
In one 2018 cable published by the Mail on Sunday, U.K. ambassador Kim Darroch says President Donald Trump pulled out of an international nuclear deal with Iran as an act of "diplomatic vandalism" to spite his predecessor, Barack Obama.
So that diplomat believes the Iran nuclear deal provided disarmament for our time? Huh.
The man has a point though, because lacking Senate approval it was not a treaty committing America to the deal, and really was simply Obama's (or just Kerry's?) deal. The 2015 Iran nuclear deal isn't so much a treaty as it is a common document that everyone in the room picked up and took home. As I noted when this became known, bravo State Department. Very impressive.
The deal was awful, as was obvious from reading it. Which didn't include the non-public "side deals" with the IAEA.
Nor does the deal include the American concessions not related to nukes.
So who is "vandalising" diplomacy and violating international norms? Someone who pretends some farcical document is a sacred international document; or someone who refuses to act like it is?
UPDATE: On the nuclear pretending, I was assured that this is impossible because Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapons program.
UPDATE: Well what do you know?
According to one current and one former U.S. government official speaking on the condition of anonymity, Darroch repeatedly leaked classified U.S. intelligence information, including highly classified information, to a journalist for a U.S.-based media outlet. The sources are consolidated by the reaction my related inquiries have received from other government officials. ...
One of the sources said that the ambassador repeatedly transmitted highly classified U.S. originator-control intelligence information to the journalist. ORCON intelligence, as it's called in the intelligence world, is closely held and carefully distributed.
Perhaps Darroch can get a posting to Tehran where he will find his host more agreeable.
Tip to Instapundit.
UPDATE: Kneel Britannia:
The BBC has agreed to conditions set by the Islamic Republic of Iran to not share reporting materials it gathers in Iran with its Persian-language channel, BBC Persian, an internal email obtained by HuffPost reveals. The agreement represents a capitulation to a government that has been hostile to press freedom. The Iranian government routinely shuts down media organizations critical of the regime and imprisons, tortures and executes journalists.
To be fair, as long as Britain achieves peace for our time, this is totally cool, right?
Although in dictator appeasement, the BBC is simply catching up with CNN, I guess.
UPDATE: Did Iran seize a tanker that has gone silent? Or did Iran rescue it? Or something not related to Iran?
Why don't we have drones circling it to find out? Or do we? It sure sounds like we don't have eyes on the ship.
