Iran reports seizing oil tanker

Vessel, accused of smuggling crude, had disappeared Sunday

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran said Thursday its Revolutionary Guard seized a foreign oil tanker and its crew of 12 for smuggling fuel out of the country, and hours later released video showing the vessel to be a United Arab Emirates-based ship that had vanished in Iranian waters over the weekend.

The announcement solved one mystery but raised a host of other questions and heightened worries about the flow of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. One-fifth of global crude exports passes through the strait.

Iranian state television did not at first identify the seized vessel but said it was intercepted Sunday and was involved in smuggling 264,000 gallons of Iranian fuel. Iran did not identify the nationalities of the crew.

Iran said the tanker was seized south of its Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Neighboring Qeshm Island has a Revolutionary Guard base.

Hours after that initial report, Iranian TV released footage of the ship surrounded by Guard vessels and showed the registration number painted on its bridge, matching that of the Uae-based MT Riah.

The Panamanian-flagged tanker stopped transmitting its location early Sunday near Qeshm Island, according to data on the tracking site Maritime Traffic. However, it often did so over the past two years when nearing Iranian waters, other tracking data shows.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, declined to comment.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the seized vessel was at best a “small tanker” and that Iranian forces are cracking down on fuel smuggling daily.

“We live in a very dangerous environment. The United States has pushed itself and the rest of the world into probably the brink of an abyss,” Zarif told reporters at the United Nations. He accused the Trump administration of “trying to starve our people” and “deplete our treasury” through sanctions.