- Iran has seized an oil tanker it claimed was carrying 1 million liters of "smuggled fuel”.
Iran has seized an oil tanker it claimed was carrying 1 million liters of “smuggled fuel,” state news agency Press TV said on Thursday.
Citing an IRGC statement, Fars reported that the ship which has a capacity of 2 million liters, is a foreign tanker and was seized in an area south of Larak, a small island in the Strait of Hormuz.
Fars added that the ship was carrying fuel smuggled to it on Iranian dhows, or small boats.
The ship’s seizure is one in a series of recent maritime episodes involving Iran.
Since the weekend, US intelligence has been investigating what happened to the vessel, believed to be Panamanian-flagged tanker M/T Riah.
The ship-tracking website Marine Vessel Traffic has not had a current location for that tanker since July 7.
While US intelligence suggested that the tanker was UAE-owned, the United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday that the tanker in question was “neither owned nor operated by the UAE. It does not carry Emirati personnel, and did not emit a distress call,” according to state-run WAM.
It is unclear whether the tanker that Iran said on Thursday it had seized is the same vessel as the one that Tehran claimed to have assisted earlier this week.
The IRGC have denied seizing any other tankers, Fars said Thursday.
In June, tensions between the US and Iran escalated into a military standoff after an American drone was shot down by Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most vital shipping routes.
