April 27, 2023
Iran’s army has
said it seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman after
it collided with an Iranian boat, injuring several crewmen, state media
reported.
“A Marshall
Islands-flagged oil tanker was seized by the Iranian army’s naval force in the
Persian Gulf after it collided with an Iranian boat in the Gulf of Oman and
tried to flee,” the army statement said on Thursday.
“Two members of
the boat’s crew are missing and several were injured due to the collision of
the ship with the boat.”
Earlier, the US
Navy said Iranian forces seized a tanker in the Gulf of Oman in international
waters.
Satellite
tracking data for the vessel from MarineTraffic.com showed the tanker in the
Gulf of Oman just north of Oman’s capital, Muscat, on Thursday afternoon.
It had just come
from Kuwait and listed its destination as Houston, Texas in the United States.
The waters where
the US-bound ship was seized, near the Strait of Hormuz, are a chokepoint for
at least a third of the world’s seaborne oil.
In a statement
issued earlier, the US Navy had said Iranian naval forces had seized the
Advantage Sweet oil tanker while it had been “transiting international waters”
in the Gulf of Oman.
“The Iranian
government should immediately release the oil tanker,” the Bahrain-based US
Fifth Fleet added, denouncing Iran’s “continued harassment of vessels and
interference with navigational rights in regional waters”.
Iran and the US
have traded barbs in recent years over a spate of incidents in the sensitive
waters of the Gulf.
The seizure on
Thursday is the latest incident in the Strait of Hormuz where ships have been
mysteriously attacked, drones downed and oil tankers seized.
“In the past two
years, Iran has unlawfully seized at least five commercial vessels sailing in
the Middle East”, the US Navy said.
The seizure
comes after the US, United Kingdom and European Union toughened sanctions
against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps on Monday, citing alleged human rights
violations by Tehran.
The Western
measures added to those already taken for Tehran’s hardline response to
protests that rocked Iran since the September death in custody of Mahsa Amini,
22, after her arrest for an alleged breach of strict dress rules for women.
Iran later
announced countermeasures, including financial sanctions and entry bans,
targeting EU and UK individuals and entities for “imposing and exacerbating
cruel sanctions”.
Tensions have
escalated since 2018 when then-US President Donald Trump withdrew the US from a
multinational accord that froze Iran’s nuclear programme, and reimposed
crippling sanctions on its economy.
In July 2019,
the Revolutionary Guard seized the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero in
the same waterway for allegedly ramming a fishing boat, and released it two
months later.
In 2021, Iran
released a South Korean oil tanker it had held for months amid a dispute about
billions of dollars seized by Seoul.
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