Conscious...

 Hillary Clinton was the Secretary of State,2009-2013

The anti-Syrian sanctions have been mandated by the EU since 2011 but they lack United Nations authority, so the boarding of a tanker in Gibraltar waters raises further legal questions. Iran is not a member of the European Union and is perfectly entitled to trade with Syria. 

Whatever the legality of the British action, the incident will have had some value if it helps to highlight the bankruptcy of British, EU and US policy on Syria.

Eight years after Western governments called for Bashar al-Assad’s departure and started funding and arming opposition forces, Syria lies in ruins, Hndreds of thousands are dead and millions of people have been forced to flee their homes.

In 2018, the UN estimated that as many as 250,000 Syrians could go back home to try to rebuild their lives, but the EU continues to refuse aid and investment for reconstruction. More than five million have fled the country.  

The people who suffer from the Western insistence on making reconstruction aid conditional on Syrian government concessions are Syria’s desperate people and the world bankrupt conscious. [Jonathan Steele]