The United States condemned Iran for seizing an oil tanker off the coast of Oman and called for its immediate release and its crew, the White House said on Thursday.
“There is no justification for confiscating it. They should release him,” White House spokesman for national security affairs John Kirby said at a press conference.
The ship, which was seized by Iran’s navy in the past, has been at the epicenter of a major crisis between Tehran and Washington, officials said. The seizure of the tanker further escalates tensions in Middle Eastern waterways.
The ship was once called the Suez Rajan and was embroiled in a year-long dispute that eventually led to the US Department of Justice seizing 1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil on board.
The seizure follows weeks of attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran, including a barrage of missiles and drones carried out on Tuesday evening.
That has raised the risk of possible retaliatory attacks by US-led forces now patrolling the vital waterway, especially after a United Nations Security Council vote on Wednesday condemning Houthi rebels’ attacks on merchant ships. American and British officials have warned of possible consequences from the attacks.
Iran’s state television announced the seizure of the tanker on Thursday, hours after gunmen boarded it.
A British military unit that issues warnings to sailors in the Middle East said the seizure of the tanker began early Thursday morning in waters between Oman and Iran. The area where the tanker was seized is a transit waterway through which ships enter and exit the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which one-fifth of all traded oil passes.
The British Navy said they heard “unknown voices over the phone” when they tried to contact the ship. She said further attempts to contact the ship were unsuccessful and that the men who boarded the ship were wearing “black military-style uniforms and black masks”.
Private security firm Ambrey said “four to five gunmen” boarded the vessel, which it identified as the oil tanker St. Nicholas”. The Ambrey firm said the gunmen covered surveillance cameras as they boarded the ship.
The ship was anchored in a port near the city of Basra in Iraq, where it was loaded with crude oil for transport to Turkey for the Turkish company Tupras. Satellite data analyzed by The Associated Press last showed the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker had turned around and headed for the port of Bandar-e Jask in Iran.
The ship “St. Nikolas”, which was previously called “Suez Rajan”, is owned by the Greek company “Empire Navigation”. In a statement to the Associated Press news agency, Athens-based Empire Navigation acknowledged that it had lost contact with the tanker. According to the Greek company, 18 crew members of the ship are citizens of the Philippines and one citizen of Greece.
Empire Navigation has no knowledge of a court order or that their vessel has been seized by the Iranian Navy. No one has contacted us”, said the Greek company.
Attention began to focus on the Suez Rajan in February 2022, when the group United Against a Nuclear Iran said it suspected the tanker was carrying oil from Iran’s Khargh Island, its main oil distribution terminal in the Persian Gulf. Satellite photos and shipping data analyzed at the time by The Associated Press confirmed the announcement.
For months, the ship was anchored in the South China Sea off the northeast coast of Singapore before suddenly sailing off the coast of Texas without explanation. The ship offloaded its cargo to another tanker in August, which released its oil in Houston as part of a US Department of Justice order.
In September, Empire Navigation pleaded guilty to smuggling Iranian crude, which was prohibited by international sanctions, and agreed to pay a $2.4 million fine.
The US Navy’s 5th Fleet, which patrols the Middle East, did not respond to a request for comment on the incident.
After the Suez Rajan left for America, Iran seized two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, including one carrying cargo for the American oil company Chevron Corp. In July, the senior commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s naval wing threatened further action against anyone who unloaded the Suezin Rajan’s oil cargo.
Since the collapse of the Iran nuclear deal, a number of Iranian ships have been seized in the waters around the Strait of Hormuz, as well as attacks have been carried out on ships, for which the US Navy has blamed Tehran. Iran and the US Navy have also had a series of tense confrontations in the waterways, although attention has recently focused on attacks by Houthi rebels on merchant ships in the Red Sea.