DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Iran’s navy seized an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, just months after a cargo of Iranian oil was sent to the United States over sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program. He was captured, further escalating tensions. Waterways of the Middle East.
The ship was known as the Suez Rajan when it was embroiled in a year-long conflict that began in 2021 and ended with the U.S. Department of Justice taking over 1 million barrels of Iranian oil.
The seizure also comes after weeks of attacks by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea, including the largest barrage of drones and missiles in history launched late Tuesday. . U.S.-led forces launched a retaliatory attack early Friday.
Iranian state television confirmed the seizure late Thursday afternoon, hours after the gunmen boarded it, and said it was linked to an earlier oil seizure. Iran’s navy, rather than Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, announced that it had carried out the seizure. Past tense incidents at sea have primarily involved security personnel.
“The seizure of an oil tanker by the Iranian Navy does not constitute hijacking. Rather, it is a legal act authorized by a court order and amounts to theft of Iran’s own oil,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in a statement. told the Associated Press. “Adhering to established legal procedures is the most prudent approach to resolving this issue.”
St. Nicholas was previously named Suez Rajan in partnership with Greek shipping company Empire Navigation. Athens-based Empire Navigation confirmed in a statement to The Associated Press that it had lost contact with the ship, which had a crew of 18 Filipinos and one Greek.
“The Empire has no knowledge of the court order or the seizure of its vessels by the Iranian Navy and has not yet been contacted by anyone,” the company said.
The British military’s British Sea Trade Operations, which has issued a warning to sailors in the Middle East, said Thursday’s seizure began early in the morning in waters transited by ships entering and exiting the Strait of Hormuz between Oman and Iran. The narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, through which one-fifth of the oil traded passes.
The British military-run group said it had received a report from the ship’s security officer who said he and the captain had heard an “unknown voice on the phone.” Further efforts to contact the ship were unsuccessful, and the statement said the men on board were wearing “black military uniforms and black masks.”
Private security firm Ambry identified the oil tanker St. Nicholas and said there were “four to five armed individuals” on board. The men were said to have hidden surveillance cameras while riding.
The tanker was off the coast of the Iraqi city of Basra, loading crude oil bound for Aliaga, Turkey, for Turkish oil refinery Tupras. Satellite tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press last showed the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker turning around and headed for Iran’s Bandar-e-Jask port.
The Suez Rajan began to attract attention in February 2022, when Iranian anti-nuclear groups suspected that the tanker was carrying oil from Iran’s Kharg Island, a major oil distribution terminal in the Persian Gulf. That was when it was announced. Satellite photos and shipping data analyzed by The Associated Press at the time supported this claim.
The ship had been anchored in the South China Sea off the northeast coast of Singapore for months, when it suddenly set sail for the Texas coast without explanation. The ship unloaded her cargo in August onto another tanker, which released crude oil in Houston as part of a Justice Department order.
In September, Empire Navigation pled guilty to smuggling sanctioned Iranian oil and agreed to pay a $2.4 million fine over the tanker incident.
From Washington, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel condemned Iran’s seizure of the ship.
“The Iranian government must immediately release the ship and its crew,” Patel said. “This illegal seizure of a merchant vessel is just the latest act by or enabled by Iran to disrupt international commerce.”
Iran seized two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz after the then Suez Rajan headed for the United States, including one carrying cargo from US oil giant Chevron. In July, the Revolutionary Guards naval commander threatened further action. It opposes anyone unloading the Suez Rajan, and state media has linked recent seizures to the fate of the cargo.
Since the collapse of the Iran nuclear deal, Iran has carried out a series of seizures of ships and attacks on ships in the waters around the Straits, which the US Navy claims are the work of Iran. Iran and its navy have also experienced a series of tense confrontations in the waterway, but recent attention has focused on Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
The United States and its allies have also seized Iranian oil cargoes since 2019 to enforce sanctions against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. This has led to a series of attacks in the Middle East blamed on the Islamic Republic and the seizure of ships by Iranian forces and militias, threatening global shipping.
The Houthis say their attacks are aimed at ending Palestinian suffering in Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But rebels are increasingly targeting ships with weak or no ties to Israel.
Meanwhile, satellite tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press on Thursday showed that an Iranian cargo ship suspected of being a spy hub in the Red Sea had left the waterway. Data showed that the Beshad entered the Gulf of Aden through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The Beshad has been in the Red Sea off the coast of Eritrea’s Dharak Islands since 2021. Amid a growing shadow war in the region with attacks on ships, the base comes after Iran removed the Sabiz base, another spy base in the Red Sea that analysts said was damaged in an Israeli attack. arrived at.
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Associated Press writer Amir Vahadat in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.