Iran Seizes Second Tanker
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IRGC Navy seizes its second oil tanker in a week as Iranian President meets his Syrian counterpart in Damascus move comes after Washington blocked Iranian oil shipments
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy used fast-attack boats to seize an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, according to the US Navy, which released a video of the incident. Tehran confirmed the seizure, the second such retaliatory incident since the US reportedly blocked a consignment of Iranian crude oil last week.
The Niovi, a Panama-flagged tanker managed by Greece-based Smart Tankers, was swarmed by a dozen IRGC attack boats as it transited the strait, the US Navy said in a statement. Video footage released by the Navy showed the boats escorting the tanker, apparently after ordering it to redirect.
The Panama-flagged oil tanker Niovi is surrounded by Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, May 3, 2023 © AP / US Navy
The ship had left Dubai at midday on Tuesday and was due to arrive at the Emirati port of Fujairah by Wednesday afternoon, but was turned around and diverted to Iranian waters.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy used fast-attack boats to seize an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, according to the US Navy, which released a video of the incident. Tehran confirmed the seizure, the second such retaliatory incident since the US reportedly blocked a consignment of Iranian crude oil last week.
The Niovi, a Panama-flagged tanker managed by Greece-based Smart Tankers, was swarmed by a dozen IRGC attack boats as it transited the strait, the US Navy said in a statement. Video footage released by the Navy showed the boats escorting the tanker, apparently after ordering it to redirect.
The ship had left Dubai at midday on Tuesday and was due to arrive at the Emirati port of Fujairah by Wednesday afternoon, but was turned around and diverted to Iranian waters.
Officials in Tehran told the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency that the Niovi was impounded following an unspecified legal complaint by a plaintiff.
The incident came after the Advantage Sweet was stormed by Iranian commandos in the Gulf of Oman last Thursday. The Marshall Islands-flagged vessel is owned by a Chinese firm, but had been chartered to transport a cargo of oil to the US for American petroleum giant Chevron.
Officials in Tehran told the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency that the Niovi was impounded following an unspecified legal complaint by a plaintiff.
The incident came after the Advantage Sweet was stormed by Iranian commandos in the Gulf of Oman last Thursday. The Marshall Islands-flagged vessel is owned by a Chinese firm, but had been chartered to transport a cargo of oil to the US for American petroleum giant Chevron.
Dramatic video footage released by Tehran showed the commandos rappelling from helicopters onto the ship’s deck, before moving toward its bridge.
The US Navy described both seizures as “contrary to international law and disruptive to regional security and stability.”However, American officials did not mention the fact that immediately prior to Thursday’s seizure, US authorities impounded a shipment of Iranian oil bound for China. Quoting anonymous officials, the Financial Times reported that the ship was redirected toward the US in an apparent sanctions enforcement operation.
The US and its allies often block the transport of Iranian oil at sea, and Tehran usually responds in kind. Iranian forces seized two Greek-flagged vessels in the Strait of Hormuz last year after Greece allowed the US to drain an Iranian tanker of oil in Greek waters. Back in 2019, Iran impounded two British-flagged tankers after the UK seized an Iranian tanker in Gibraltar.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met with his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad in Damascus on Wednesday to sign multiple memoranda of understanding, The documents covered cooperation between the two countries in oil, communications and information technology, railways, civil aviation, agriculture, and free zones.
The leaders also agreed to mutual recognition of maritime certificates and signed a memorandum of understanding between the National Center for Earthquakes in Syria and the International Institute of Seismic Engineering in Iran.
Assad and Raisi affirmed their countries’ shared geopolitical aims and discussed recent political moves in the region. “We are currently witnessing many political developments and changes in the region and the world, but relations between the two countries have not and will not be affected by these changes and developments,” Raisi promised, praising his host nation for “achiev[ing] victory despite the threats and sanctions imposed on you.”
Iran will be “standing side by side with Syria, particularly during the period of reconstruction,” he said.
The last Iranian head of state to visit Syria was then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2010, though Tehran has provided military and economic assistance to Damascus in the intervening years. While Assad’s government was targeted for isolation and destruction by the US and its allies, leading to estrangement from many of its Arab neighbors, regional hostilities have apparently cooled to the point that foreign ministers from Egypt and Saudi Arabia have visited Damascus in recent weeks.
“America and its allies failed on all fronts against the resistance, and could not achieve any of their goals,” Iran’s newly-appointed ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbar, told Iranian state media on Tuesday.
In a further sign of thawing regional hostilities, in March Iran and Saudi Arabia reopened their mutual embassies after seven years without official communication, after China hosted a meeting between the countries’ foreign ministers.
Source SANA/IRNA/RT/Reuters
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