The Iranian Navy on Thursday seized a United States-bound oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman. The ship has 24 Indian crew members.
Following the seizure, Iranian state television aired footage masked commandos conducting a helicopter-borne raid to seize the ship.
The US Navy's Middle East-based 5th Fleet identified the seized ship as the Advantage Ship. It's a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker. It was going to Houston in the United States. Satellite tracking data for the vessel from MarineTraffic.com showed it in the Gulf of Oman, just north of Oman's capital, Muscat, on Thursday afternoon. It had just come from Kuwait.
The seizure is the latest-such capture in a waterway crucial for global energy supplies. It comes amid wider tensions over Iranian nuclear programme.
What we know of the Iranian seizure?
The Advantage Sweet issued a distress call at 1:15 pm while in international waters as Iran seized the vessel, said the US Navy.
The 5th Fleet said, "Iran's actions are contrary to international law and disruptive to regional security and stability. Iran should immediately release the oil tanker."
The US Navy initially said Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized the vessel, but a US naval aircraft later confirmed that Iran's navy captured the ship, 5th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins told The Associated Press.
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency said the seizure came after an "unknown ship collided with an Iranian vessel last night in the Persian Gulf, causing several Iranian crew members to go missing and get injured". It did not identify the other ship involved in the alleged collision.
The Advantage Sweet had been in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, but its track showed no unusual behavior as it transited through the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of all traded oil passes. Iran has made allegations in other seizures that later fell apart as it became clear Tehran was trying to leverage the capture as a chip to negotiate with foreign nations.
The 5th Fleet said the Iranian seizure was at least the fifth commercial vessel taken by Tehran in the last two years.
Iran's actions threat to global economy: US
"Iran's continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters are a threat to maritime security and the global economy," said the US 5th Fleet.
US Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, said in a statement that the "illegal seizure" of the tanker was "another in a continuing series of violations by Iran of the international rules-based order".
Iran's "harassing activity within the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman is commensurate with an established pattern of behavior that has seen Iran target vessels as a result of ongoing disputes", maritime security firm Dryad Global said.
What did ship company say?
The vessel's manager, a Turkish firm called Advantage Tankers, issued a statement acknowledging the Advantage Sweet was "being escorted by the Iranian navy to a port on the basis of an international dispute".
The firm said, "The safety and welfare of our valued crew members is our No. 1 priority. Similar experiences show that crew members of vessels taken under such circumstances are in no danger."
The ship's listed owner appeared to be a Chinese company.
Manifest information from data firm Refinitiv showed the Advantage Sweet carried Kuwaiti crude oil for American energy firm Chevron Corp. of San Ramon, California. Chevron said it was "aware of the situation".
"We are in contact with the vessel operator with the hope of resolving this situation as soon as possible," Chevron spokesperson Christine Dobbyn said in a statement.
Long line of incidents in the region
Thursday's seizure by Iran was the latest in a string of ship seizures and explosions to roil the region.
The incidents began after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from Iran's nuclear deal with world powers, which saw Tehran drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
Also, the US Navy has blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a fatal drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew members in 2021.
Tehran denies carrying out the attacks, but a wider shadow war between Iran and the West has played out in the region's volatile waters. Iranian tanker seizures have been a part of it since 2019. The last major seizure came when Iran took two Greek tankers in May and held them until November.
In the wider Midle East, Iranian-backed militias in Syria have carried out attacks on U.S. forces, including one that killed a contractor in March. The U.S. responded with airstrikes.
Meanwhile, talks over Iran's tattered nuclear deal have been stalled for a year. Since the deal's collapse, Iran runs advanced centrifuges and has a rapidly growing stockpile of enriched uranium. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has warned Iran has enriched enough up to 60 per cent purity — a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent. That would be sufficient for Iran to make several nuclear weapons if it chooses to do so.
Iran releases footage of raid
Masked Iranian navy commandos conducted a helicopter-borne raid to seize a US-bound oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, footage aired by Iran's state television showed on Friday.
The footage showed the commandos descending on the deck of the Advantage Sweet by ropes from a hovering helicopter.
A photograph showed one commando with his fist in the air after apparently taking the vessel.
(With AP inputs)
