Iran shipping firm trying to contact hijacked ship
Published: Wednesday, November 19, 2008
14:30GMT—9:30AM/EST
IRISL – PIRATES – DELIGHT
Washington, 19 November (IranVNC)—Iran’s national shipping line today said that it had not been able to contact a ship that had been hijacked by Somali pirates while carrying 36,000 tons of wheat to Iran.
The Delight, which was registered in Hong Kong and chartered by Iran, was captured yesterday off the coast of Yemen, while en route for the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas. It had originated in Germany.
The ship is carrying a crew of 25, seven of whom are Iranian. Hong Kong officials have said it is now headed for Somalia.
“Still we have no news. There was no success in getting in contact with this vessel. We couldn’t get through,” an official from the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines [IRISL] was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The official, who had requested not to be named, added: “We are waiting for the pilot or ship’s crew to contact us and tell us the situation.”
Mohammad Mehdi Rasekh, member of the IRISL executive board, has said that the shipping firm would have to discuss any prospect of ransom payment with the ship’s owners in Hong Kong, Iran’s Labor News Agency, ILNA, reports.
“It is still not clear whether or not Iran is to take part in paying the ransom, but due to the use of the Hong Kong flag and the ship’s main owners, we must hold serious talks on the amount and way of paying the ransom,” the agency quoted him as saying.
IRISL said on 11 October that it had paid a ransom for the release of another hijacked Iranian ship, Iran Diyanat, which had been hijacked by pirates on 21 August and released on 10 October.
He did not specify the amount of the ransom, but the maritime and transport news website, Lloyd’s List, reported that the firm ultimately paid a total of 2.5 million dollars.
Iran Diyanat docked at the Port of Rotterdam last week, and is currently unloading its freight, Captain Majid Ensan Najib, IRISL’s Director of the Office for Maritime Affairs, said today in a statement on ISIRL’s website.
Also today, India’s Navy said that an Indian warship had destroyed a pirate “mother vessel” in the Gulf of Aden late last night, after pirates demanded ransom for a Saudi super-tanker seized earlier this week.
Sources: Reuters, ILNA in Persian, IRISL website in Persian, Lloyd’s List
© IranVNC 2008. All rights reserved.