US forces Cook Islands to deregister tankers for carrying Iran oil

… According to the Guardian, the New York-based anti-Iran lobby group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) has shown registry officials of the Cook Islands satellite images of three oil tankers allegedly engaged in shipping Iranian crude oil. The alleged shipments in last October occurred before the vessels registered with the Cook Islands, but the ships were deleted from the registry anyhow, because that was what the Americans wanted. “We just do what they tell us to do,” the Guardian cited one local official with knowledge of the matter as saying.