Iran seizes 2 foreign oil tankers in Persian Gulf, state media says

A national flag of Iran waves in front of the building of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, in Vienna, Austria, in 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Gruber, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran seized two foreign oil tankers in the Persian Gulf on Thursday, state television reported, claiming the vessels had been smuggling fuel.

The report did not provide a nationality of the tankers or say what flag they were flying under.

Gen. Heidar Honarian Mojarrad, a regional commander with the Revolutionary Guard’s navy, said the tankers had been carrying about one million litres of fuel (about 6,300 barrels), including diesel and were seized near Farsi island and transferred to Bushehr.

Fifteen crew members on board the two tankers are “in custody of judicial bodies,” he said, without providing their nationalities.

Iran occasionally seizes oil-carrying vessels over similar charges in the region.

In December, it seized a foreign tanker as it travelled the strategic Strait of Hormuz, detaining 16 crew. It had also seized a ship in the Strait of Hormuz in November.

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.

The seizure comes the day before the U.S. and Iran are expected to meet for highly anticipated nuclear talks in the Omani capital of Muscat. Tensions between the countries remain high following Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests last month.