pass through that particular channel. it journeyed all around the continent of africa, a startling route that took it into the gibraltar straits where the uk royal commandos seemed to have intercepted it. there is an interesting development in this in that the spanish foreign minister said that actual interception occurred because of a request from the united states. the u.s. hasn't commented directly yet at this point, but now we are in a situation where the iranian media is using words like taken hostage and the british are saying they intercepted it because it seemed to be en route to syria where it may have been about to deliver this oil, possibly fuel oil to a refinery that would violate eu sanctions against the syrian regime for their atrocities in the countries north. on top of that, too, the iranian government has stepped forward and said this was an iranian tanker. registered in panama but seems to be carrying some kind of iranian oil. that potentially could be in violation of u.s. sanctions against iran. so a lot going on here but