According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, U.S. forces last month intercepted and boarded a Chinese ship headed for Iran, and seized some of its cargo before allowing it to proceed. The report cited sources who claim that the ship was carrying so-called dual-use products that would be used by Iran to rebuild its military capabilities, including nuclear-related materials. The U.S. had allegedly been tracking the goods long before they left China for Iran, and stopped the ship off the coast of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean.
The South China Morning Post quotes Lu Li-Shih, a former Taiwanese navy instructor, who said the latest seizure showed Washington was “testing the waters.” “By acting first, the US is probing how the international community will respond—whether the United Nations or institutions such as the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea will react at all,” Lu said.
