Iran confirms it seized oil tanker in Gulf of Oman after 'armed men' were seen boarding
Iran confirms its forces have seized an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, which was reportedly boarded by armed men in military uniforms earlier in the day.
The state-run IRNA news agency ran a brief story acknowledging the seizure by Iran’s navy. It did not identify the vessel, but said the seizure came as a result of a judicial order.
The Iranian navy's “seizure of the oil tanker does not constitute hijacking; rather, it is a lawful undertaking sanctioned by a court order and corresponds to the theft of Iran’s very own oil,” Iran's mission to the United Nations said in a statement.
"Adhering to the established legal procedures is the most prudent approach for the resolution of this matter.”
Details remained unclear in what was apparently the latest seizure of a vessel in the tense Middle East waterways.
However, suspicion immediately fell on Iran as the ship was once known as the Suez Rajan and had been involved in a year-long dispute that ultimately saw the US Justice Department seize one million barrels of Iranian crude oil on it.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which provides warnings to sailors in the Middle East, said the incident began early in the morning in waters between Oman and Iran in an area transited by ships coming in and out of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes.
The UK military-run group described receiving a report from the ship's security manager of hearing “unknown voices over the phone” alongside with the ship's captain.
It said that further efforts to contact the ship had failed and that the men who boarded the vessel wore "black military-style uniforms with black masks."
The private intelligence firm Ambrey said that “six military men” boarded the ship, which it identified as the oil tanker St. Nikolas. It said that the men had covered the surveillance cameras as they boarded.
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The St. Nikolas had earlier been named the Suez Rajan, associated with the Greek shipping company Empire Navigation.
Attention began focusing on the Suez Rajan in February 2022, when the group United Against Nuclear Iran said it suspected the tanker carried oil from Iran’s Khargh Island, its main oil distribution terminal in the Persian Gulf.
Satellite photos and shipping data analysed at the time by the AP supported the allegation.
Since the collapse of Iran's nuclear deal, waters around the strait have seen a series of ship seizures by Iran, as well as assaults targeting shipping that the Navy has blamed on Tehran.
Iran and the Navy also have had a series of tense encounters in the waterway, though recent attention has been focused on the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen attacking ships in the Red Sea amid Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The US and its allies also have been seizing Iranian oil cargoes since 2019. That has led to a series of attacks in the Mideast attributed to the Islamic Republic, as well as ship seizures by Iranian military and paramilitary forces that threaten global shipping.
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