Iran seizes second oil tanker carrying ‘smuggled fuel’ in Gulf
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has seized an oil tanker carrying 700,000 litres of “smuggled fuel” for Arab countries in the Persian Gulf, according to state media.
State TV said seven crew members were detained when the ship was seized on Wednesday. They did not give details about the vessel or the nationality of the crew.
The news agency reported that the ship was seized near Farsi Island, where there is an Iranian Guard Navy base.
The island sits in the Persian Gulf between Saudi Arabia and Iran, north of the Strait of Hormuz.
“This foreign vessel had received the fuel from other ships and was transferring it to Persian Gulf Arab states,” Fars quoted General Ramazan Zirahi, a Guard commander, as saying.
This would mark the third commercial vessel seized by Iranian forces in recent weeks and the second accused of smuggling fuel.
On 13 July the Iranian coastguard detained the Panamaflagged MT Riah and claimed the ship was seized during naval patrols aimed at “discovering and confronting organised smuggling”.
Also last month, Iran seized British-flagged tanker the Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz, claiming it had collided with a fishing vessel.
Tensions have soared in the Gulf in recent months as the US has increased its military presence and oil tankers have been seized by Iranian forces or targeted by unknown saboteurs.
The tensions are rooted in the US decision last year to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear accord and impose sweeping sanctions on Iran.
Iran recently began openly breaching limits set by the nuclear agreement, saying it cannot abide by the deal unless European signatories provide some kind of economic relief.
Iran seized the Britishflagged vessel in the Gulf in what some Iranian officials suggested was retaliation for the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker in a Royal Navy operation off Gibraltar.
The UK said the Iranian oil tanker was suspected of violating European Union sanctions on oil shipments to Syria.
Meanwhile Iran said a fighter jet has gone down in the south of the country near the Gulf, with two pilots surviving the crash.
The state-run IRNA news agency quoted a local official as saying the crash was caused by a technical problem. The purpose of yesterday’s flight was not immediately clear. Patrol flights are common in the region.
Iran’s air force has an assortment of Us-made military aircraft bought before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but decades of Western sanctions have made it hard to maintain the ageing fleet.