Africa-Press – Eswatini. King Mswati is not, in any way involved in ships dealing with Russia, his Spokesperson Percy Simelane has clarified.
The King’s Spokesperson was responding on Thursday evening after being asked to clarify allegations contained in an article suggesting that, ships with eSwatini flag,assisting Russia to transport oil and other goods “have been banned” by the United Arab Emirates(UAE).
“To the best of my knowledge, we have no ships anywhere in the seas as a country.We have not authorized any hoisting of our flag or Blue Peter on any ship or boat anywhere in the world”, said the King’s Spokesperson.
It has been reported that, the eSwatini flag “is now on a list that restricts calls to UAE ports and waters”,’according to a government circular posted on the Port of Fujairah website, Eswatini was allegedly colluding with Cameroon to assist Russia amid United States(US) sanctions.
“Vessels sailing under both flags have transported oil for Moscow after it assembled a shadow fleet of ships to help keep sanctioned supplies moving. The ban won’t apply to ships assessed by a wider international classification body.Flag states are key to maintaining safety standards in global shipping. For oil tankers, Liberia and the Marshall Islands are among the largest providers, but after the invasion of Ukraine a series of less well-known flags emerged, with questions about the strength of their safety standards.Eswatini-formerly Swaziland-is a particularly new player, with no ships sailing under its flag in 2023, according to Clarkson Research Services, a unit of the world’s largest ship broker. That number is now at 26 ships, though not all of them would be tankers.Of 18 Eswatini-flagged ships visible in ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg, the ownership of 16 is unclear. Several tankers on that list have hauled oil produced in Russia and Iran, according to Kpler data”, reported.
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