Iran seize vessel over money issue
Officials downplay act, says it is part of a legalmatter
BERLIN — The operator of cargo vessel boarded by Iranian forces as it was traversing the Strait of Hormuz said Wednesday it has confirmed the crew is safe. Iran meanwhile downplayed the political significance of the seizure, saying it was taken because the company that chartered it owed a local firm money.
The Marshall Islandsflagged MV Maersk Tigris was taken Wednesday to Bandar Abbas, the main port for Iran’s navy, under escort by Iranian patrol boats, according to Maersk Line, the Danish shipping company that had chartered it.
The incident comes at a critical time in Iran’s relations with the United States and the West, as talks about its contested nuclear program continue and frictions rise as U. S.- ally Saudi Arabia leads an airstrike campaign against Iranianbacked rebels in Yemen.
Speaking in New York, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the ship’s seizure had “nothing to do with Yemen” and was strictly a legal case. A plane flies over the mountains south of the Strait of Hormuz in 2012. Iranians seized a ship in the waterwayWednesday and took it to Bandar Abbas.
“I think we should not read too much into it,” Zarif said. The Iranian Port and Maritime Organization also released a statement saying that Maersk Line owed an Iranian oil company financial damages from an Iranian court ruling.
Maersk Line spokesman Michael Storgaard said in a statement that Iranian authorities told it the ship’s seizure related to “an allegedly unresolved cargo claim.”
“We have, however, not received any written notification or similar pertaining to the claim or the seizure of the vessel,” Storgaard said. “” We are therefore not able to confirm whether or not this is the actual reason behind the seizure.”
Cor Radings, a spokesman for the ship’s operator, Rickmers Ship Management in Singapore, which is part of a Hamburg- based shipping group, said his company had no known issues itself with Iran and that only Maersk Line could comment on the Iranian claim.
Radings said his company had been in touch by phone with the crew during the day on Wednesday.
“We have had the confirmation that they are in relatively good condition and safe on board the ship,” he said.
Iranian forces remain on board the ship, Radings said, adding that Rickmers had not been in contact with Iranian authorities.
Iranian forces boarded the MV Maersk Tigris on Tuesday after firing warning shots across the bridge, prompting the U. S. Navy to dispatch a destroyer and a plane to the area in response.