Iran’s Navy seizes Houston-bound oil tanker with 24 Indian crew members near Oman : The Tribune India
AP
Dubai, April 28
Iran’s Navy seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker with 24 Indian crew members within the Gulf of Oman on Thursday heading to the US amid wider tensions over Tehran’s nuclear programme, the latest-such seize in a waterway essential for world vitality provides.
The US Navy’s Mideast-based fifth Fleet recognized the vessel because the Advantage Sweet. Satellite monitoring knowledge for the vessel from MarineTraffic.com confirmed it within the Gulf of Oman, simply north of Oman’s capital, Muscat, on Thursday afternoon. It had simply come from Kuwait and listed its vacation spot as Houston.
The Advantage Sweet issued a misery name at 1:15 p.m. whereas in worldwide waters as Iran seized the vessel, the Navy stated.
“Iran’s actions are contrary to international law and disruptive to regional security and stability,” the fifth Fleet stated in an announcement. “Iran should immediately release the oil tanker.”
The Navy initially stated Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized the vessel, however an American naval plane later confirmed that Iran’s navy captured the ship, fifth Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins instructed The Associated Press.
Iran’s state-run IRNA information company stated the seizure got here 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 didn’t establish the opposite ship concerned within the alleged collision.
The Advantage Sweet had been within the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, however its monitor confirmed no uncommon conduct because it transited by the Strait of Hormuz, the place a fifth of all traded oil passes. Iran has made allegations in different seizures that later fell aside because it turned clear Tehran was attempting to leverage the seize as a chip to barter with international nations.
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 safety agency Dryad Global stated.
The fifth Fleet stated the Iranian seizure was a minimum of the fifth business vessel taken by Tehran within the final two years.
“Iran’s continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters are a threat to maritime security and the global economy,” it added.
US Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, the highest US commander for the Middle East, stated in an announcement that the “illegal seizure” of the tanker was “”one other in a seamless sequence of violations by Iran of the worldwide rules-based order.”
The vessel’s supervisor, a Turkish agency known as Advantage Tankers, issued an announcement acknowledging the Advantage Sweet was “being escorted by the Iranian navy to a port on the basis of an international dispute.” All the ship’s 24 crew members are Indian.
“The safety and welfare of our valued crew members is our No. 1 priority,” the agency stated. “Similar experiences show that crew members of vessels taken under such circumstances are in no danger.”
The ship’s listed proprietor seemed to be a Chinese firm.
Manifest info from knowledge agency Refinitiv confirmed the Advantage Sweet carried Kuwaiti crude oil for American vitality agency Chevron Corp. of San Ramon, California. Chevron stated 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 stated in an announcement.
Thursday’s seizure by Iran was the newest in a string of ship seizures and explosions to roil the area.
The incidents started after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, which noticed Tehran drastically restrict its enrichment of uranium in trade for the lifting of financial sanctions.
Also, the US Navy has blamed Iran for a sequence of limpet mine assaults on vessels that broken tankers in 2019, in addition to for a deadly drone assault on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew members in 2021.
Tehran denies finishing up the assaults, however a wider shadow battle between Iran and the West has performed out within the area’s unstable waters. Iranian tanker seizures have been part of it since 2019. The final main seizure got here when Iran took two Greek tankers in May and held them till November.
In the broader Mideast, Iranian-backed militias in Syria have carried out assaults on US forces, together with one which killed a contractor in March. The US responded with airstrikes.
Meanwhile, talks over Iran’s tattered nuclear deal have been stalled for a yr. Since the deal’s collapse, Iran runs superior centrifuges and has a quickly rising stockpile of enriched uranium. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has warned Iran has enriched sufficient as much as 60 per cent purity — a brief technical step from weapons-grade ranges of 90 per cent. That can be adequate for Iran to make a number of nuclear weapons if it chooses to take action.
