Tension increases in the waters around the Arabian Peninsula. Iran announced this Thursday the capture in the Sea of Oman of an oil tanker that it described as American. His action is the response to the seizure by the United States of that same ship last year, then loaded with Iranian crude oil.
“The Navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran announced the seizure of a US oil tanker in the waters of the Sea of Oman by court order,” indicated the Iranian agency Tasnim, cited by Efe.
The ship, called St. Nikolas and flying the flag of the Marshall Islands, it had set sail from the Iraqi port of Basra loaded with 140,000 tons of oil, and was crossing the Persian Gulf to continue its journey towards the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. She had been hired by the Turkish state oil company Tupras and her final destination was Aliaga, in Turkey. But when it was in waters near Oman, about 50 nautical miles (about 92 kilometers) from the port of Sohar, four or five armed people dressed in black military-style uniforms boarded the ship this Thursday at 07:30 local time (04:30 in peninsular Spain) according to the British Navy.
He St. Nikolas It is owned by the Greek shipping company Empire Navigation and travels with a crew of 18 Filipino and one Greek sailor. Six months ago the ship was called Suez Rajan and under that name it was the subject of a bitter dispute between Washington and Tehran. In August 2023, the Department of Justice ordered his arrest and the seizure of the 980,000 barrels of Iranian crude oil he was transporting on suspicion of violating international sanctions against the Islamic regime. After unloading the merchandise in Texas, he changed his name to what he currently has and continued on his way.
According to British maritime security company Ambrey Analytics, the captured ship is now heading towards the Iranian port of Bandar-e-Jask.
Washington has demanded that Iran let the tanker continue its route. “The Iranian Government must immediately release her ship and crew. “This illegal seizure of a commercial vessel is the most recent example of behavior by Iran that seeks to disrupt international trade,” said State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel at the agency's daily press conference. The senior official has also urged Tehran to put an end to this type of “provocations” that “add uncertainty to maritime transport” and endanger the global economy.
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The incident increases tension in the area, at a time when Israel's offensive in Gaza has served as an argument for the Houthi militias in Yemen, supported by Iran, to intensify their attacks against merchant ships in the Red Sea. Since the beginning of the crisis, the United States has issued insistent warnings to Tehran not to get involved in the conflict, either directly or through the groups it supports in the Middle East, such as the Houthis or the Shiite militia Hezbollah in the south. from Lebanon. On Wednesday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an end to Houthi attacks on cargo ships.
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