Iran Seizes Tanker in Strait of Hormuz 12/26 06:10

   

   TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran seized a foreign oil tanker as it traveled the 
strategic Strait of Hormuz, state media said Friday.

   Mojtaba Ghahramani, a provincial chief of the justice department, said the 
oil tanker was carrying some 4 million liters, or 25,000 barrels, of smuggled 
fuel when the Revolutionary Guard naval forces seized the vessel, the official 
IRNA news agency reported.

   Ghahramani said the forces also detained 16 foreign crew members of the 
tanker, adding that the seizure was a remarkable "blow " to smugglers. He did 
not disclose the nationality of the crew or the flag of the tanker.

   Iran occasionally seizes oil-carrying vessels over similar charges in the 
region. In November, Iran seized a ship as it traveled through the narrow 
Strait of Hormuz over what it said were violations, including carrying an 
illegal consignment.

   The West has blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels that 
damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil 
tanker that killed two European crew members in 2021. Those attacks began after 
U.S. President Donald Trump, in his first term in office, unilaterally withdrew 
from Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

   Iran also seized the Portuguese-flagged cargo ship MSC Aries in April 2024.

   Following years of tensions between Iran and the West, coupled with the 
situation in the Gaza Strip, Iran saw a full-scale 12-day war in June with 
Israel, whose strikes led to the deaths of senior military commanders and 
nuclear scientists. Iran's retaliatory missile barrage killed 28 in Israel.

   Tehran has long threatened to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow 
mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all traded oil passes. The U.S. 
Navy has long patrolled the Mideast through its Bahrain-based 5th Fleet to keep 
the waterways open.