An oil tanker, which became the subject of a dispute between the United States and Iran last year, was seized by armed men off the coast of Oman on Thursday and then changed course. Later, Iranian authorities said that they had detained the vessel by court order.
Source. This was reported by the BBC.
"The naval forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran detained an American oil tanker in the waters of the Gulf of Oman in accordance with a court order," the Iranian IRNA news agency said.
It is alleged that the tanker was "confiscated in response to the US theft of Iranian oil in 2023".
According to shipping safety companies, the St Nikolas tanker, which flies the flag of the Marshall Islands and is owned by the Greek company Empire Navigation, was seized 90 km from the Omani port of Sohar, its AIS system was disabled, after which the ship headed towards the Iranian port of Jask.
Empire Navigation told Reuters that the vessel was loaded with 145,000 tons of oil in the Iraqi port of Basra and was heading to western Turkey through the Suez Canal.
The tanker was carrying a crew of 19 people, including 18 Filipino citizens and one Greek citizen, the operator said, adding that the vessel was chartered by the Turkish oil refining company Tupras.
Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have been attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea since October in support of Hamas militants, but these attacks have been taking place in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the southwestern Arabian Peninsula.
The St. Nikolas tanker was seized in the Strait of Hormuz, which is one of the key routes for oil transportation.
The United States and Britain made it clear that they could retaliate by striking the Yemeni Houthis.
In 2023, the St. Nikolas tanker was arrested by the United States as part of a sanctions enforcement operation. At that time, it was called the Suez Rajan.
Background. Meanwhile, it became known that the United States imported Russian oil for the first time since the spring of 2022 – the US Treasury issued several licenses that make imports possible despite the sanctions.