Iran seized two foreign oil tankers in the Persian Gulf on Thursday, state television reported, claiming the vessels were smuggling fuel.
The 15 crew members aboard the two tankers are “in the custody of judicial authorities,” he said, without providing their nationalities. (Reuters/Representative Image)The report did not provide the nationality of the tankers or state which flag they were flying under.
The tankers were carrying about 1 million liters of fuel (about 6,300 barrels), including diesel, and were intercepted near the Persian island and transferred to Bushehr, said Gen. Haider Honarian Mozarrad, regional commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ navy.
The 15 crew members aboard the two tankers are “in the custody of judicial authorities,” he said, without providing their nationalities.
Iran has occasionally seized oil tankers in the region on similar charges.
In December, it seized a foreign tanker as it traveled through the Strait of Hormuz, detaining 16 crew members. It also seized a ship in the Strait of Hormuz in November.
The West has blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on ships that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as a drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker in 2021 that killed two European crew members.
The attacks began after US President Donald Trump, in his first term, unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
