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Comment by watwut | Hacker News Reader

What are on about now? France explicitely and vocally refused to enter the war. That is why their tanker passed.

France also joined China and Russia in blocking Bahreini resolution that would authorise "all defensive means necessary" to protect commercial shipping in the strait. That is why their tanker passed.

All defensive means can mean anything. Like a military escort that would shoot back at Iran in case of an attack, which amounts to further escalation.

Not arguing about what that can mean; all I'm saying is that France and Iran exchanged favours.

I wouldn't call non escalation a favour. It should be standard practice.

I wouldn't call "letting a tanker pass in international waters without blowing it up" a favour either.

If that was true many more tankers would have passed from other countries that were more against the war.

France is one of few countries with large military presence in the area, that is the only thing they do more than most other countries.

Edit: And France even directly threatened to use force here. If you only read American news you wouldn't know since they want it to seem like the world is on Irans side here. What we are seeing is that Iran has started buckling to these threats, not that they are giving passage to those who didn't threaten.

> France is advising Bahrain on a draft United Nations Security Council resolution that would authorize the use of force to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restore global energy flows, according to three diplomats informed of the process.

https://www.politico.eu/article/france-advising-bahrain-un-s...

Spanish tankers are going through. Filipinian and Indian too.

Again, what are you on about.

France was one of 3 countries that literally blocked UN resolution about opening straight by force. And president repeatedly called it "impossible".

You read weird news if you thing "a threat" of anything is making iran to let ships pass. Money and noninvolvement do.

> Spanish tankers are going through

No they are not, this French ship was the first European tanker going through.

"X is doing B" and "Y was the first to do B" can both be true at the same time.

The Spanish tankers aren't going through because there aren't any Spanish tankers that operate in that region.

Spain has permission from Iran to send through tankers if it indeed had some.

Nobody is on Iran's side. The world is not black and white.

Most countries want STABILITY not WAR. Yes Iranian regime is evil. Yes they kill people. And no that's not worth bombing them over.

There are politicians who actually THINK and do CALCULATIONS. This war has probably already cost the global economy a trillion USD.

Certain people in power dont care about global trillions lost, rather billions they earned for themselves in insider trading. Quite a few articles in recent weeks pointing out billion+ moves just before some potus announcement.

Also, US is certainly gaining here from high oil prices since its not an optional luxury rather a necessity for entire economies.

Many people don't think Ukraine is worth resisting Russia over either. But as you just said, the world is not black and white. Your decree of what is and is not worthwhile to do, is nothing more than that.

France also has a problem with Israel waging war in Lebanon, a former French administered teritory. As long as Israel sticks to eliminating Hezbollah only, they'll shut up about it, but anything beyond that, like that bridge bombing or displacing and killing civilians it's bound to have a negative reaction from France.

Given French companies' past activities, a sizeable under the table payment from CMA CGM wouldn't surprise me.

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