Torcuil Crichton wanted to “pay tribute to the role of the Royal Navy and RAF personnel in taking out this rogue tanker flying under the flag of a rogue nation”.
Successful US efforts to seize an oil tanker linked to Venezuela came “too close for comfort,” a Scottish MP has warned. US special forces used a tiny airport in the far north of Scotland to help launch an audacious operation to seize control of the vessel.
Flight tracking websites showed American military aircraft landing at Wick John O’Groats airport earlier today, before flying further north towards Iceland. US forces later confirmed the Marinera’s seizure – a Russian-flagged vessel formerly known as Bella-1 – which is said to have escaped Donald Trump’s “total naval blockade” of Venezuela.
Torcuil Crichton, whose Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles) constituency lies off the west coast of mainland Scotland, described the Atlantic Ocean as Britain’s “front line” against Moscow.
He made his comments as Defence Secretary John Healey appeared at the despatch box, to take questions about the operation. RAF surveillance aircraft and a naval supply ship, the RFA Tideforce, were among the British military assets which took part in the operation, according to the Ministry of Defence.
The Marinera appeared to be bound for a Russian Arctic port. Mr Healey said the ship had a “nefarious history” and was “part of a Russian-Iranian axis of sanctions evasion which is fuelling terrorism, conflict and misery from the Middle East to Ukraine”.
He said the tanker had been “stateless” and falsely flying the flag of Guyana when it was first intercepted, before changing its name and attempting to adopt the Russian flag.
Mr Crichton said he wanted to “pay tribute to the role of the Royal Navy and RAF personnel in taking out this rogue tanker flying under the flag of a rogue nation”.
The Labour MP continued: “The Bella-1 was taken just a few hundred miles out into the Atlantic, which is too close for comfort if you come from the Western Isles.
“And I understand Stornoway and Benbecula airports hosted USAF (US Air Force) aircraft: Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft out of Stornoway and two V-22 Ospreys out of Benbecula.
“Can the minister give us more details of the role of Scottish airports in this operation? And does he agree with me that, yes, we have a front line in the Donbas, but the front line for us against Russia is our backyard – the wild North Atlantic?”
Mr Healey replied Mr Crichton was “right on both counts”. He told the Commons: “Part of the British and European front line is in the Donbas. He’s equally right that part of the front line for this nation and for Nato is the North Atlantic.
“And I am proud of the way that Scotland makes such a considerable contribution to the security of this country, and I’m proud of the way that part of the basing that was important for the US operation was indeed also in Scotland.”
Mr Healey had earlier told MPs “a stateless vessel may be lawfully intercepted and subjected to the law of the interdicting state”.
He added: “Over a four-year period, reports suggest that this vessel moved some 7.3 million barrels of Iranian crude oil, the proceeds of which have been used to finance terrorism, threat and instability across the world.”
Russia’s transport ministry claimed it had granted the Marinera, previously flagged in Guyana, a “temporary permit to sail under the Russian Federation flag” on Christmas Eve, and added “no state has the right to use force against vessels duly registered in the jurisdictions of other states”.
