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At least four armed men boarded a ship in the Gulf of Oman, the Royal Navy said.
abu dhabi
CNN
—
Iran has seized an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman and is transferring it to an Iranian port in retaliation for the United States’ confiscation of the ship and its oil last year, Tasnim News Agency reported on Thursday. It was reported.
The media, which is affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, cited a statement from the Iranian navy saying the seizure was carried out in accordance with an order from an Iranian court.
“The tanker, renamed St. Nicholas, and carrying oil in the Sea of Oman, was seized by the US regime on orders from the Court of Justice in retaliation for oil theft and is being transferred to a port in the Islamic Republic. He will be handed over to judicial authorities.”
Iran’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations said in a statement to CNN that the seizure was “a lawful act sanctioned by a court order and amounts to theft of Iran’s own oil.”
“Adhering to established legal procedures is the most prudent approach to resolving this issue.”
Britain’s Maritime and Trade Services Authority earlier announced that a vessel in the Gulf of Oman was boarded by at least four gunmen in the early hours of Thursday and diverted towards Iranian waters.
According to UKMTO, the ship’s company security officer reported hearing an unknown voice on the phone, after which communication with the ship was lost.
The armed “unauthorized” people on board the ship were wearing military-style black uniforms and masks, according to Royal Naval Intelligence.
The seizure of the tanker by armed groups comes at a sensitive time in the region. Container shipping through the Red Sea has been held up by attacks on ships by Iranian-backed Houthi fighters. The Yemen-based Houthis say they are retaliating for Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The biggest container shipping companies have been forced to divert ships across Africa, hurting trade and pushing up freight rates. Oil company executives are concerned that the war between Israel and Hamas could escalate into a regional conflict, disrupting oil exports.
The Strait of Hormuz, at the northern tip of the Gulf of Oman, is the world’s largest oil chokepoint. About 20% of the world’s oil consumption passes through it every day. Oil prices rose about 3% on Thursday.
The ship seized on Thursday was the Marshall Islands-flagged crude oil tanker St. Nicholas, formerly Suez Rajan, according to maritime monitoring website Tanker Trackers.
The Suez Rajan, the ship at the center of the conflict between the United States and Iran, was brought to the U.S. government last year after a court found it was used to “clandestinely sell and transport Iranian crude oil to foreign customers.” He was captured. This was announced by the US Department of Justice in a press release.
In court documents, the Justice Department said “multiple entities” affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were involved in a scheme to “disguise the origin of oil” and illegally sell it to China.
Approximately 1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil was seized by the U.S. government at the time, according to the Justice Department.
Last April, Empire Navigation, the company that operated the ship transporting the oil, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. According to the Justice Department, the Suez Rajan transported contraband to the United States and “incurred significant costs associated with its voyage to the United States.”
CNN has reached out to Empire Navigation for comment.
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