Islamic Revolutionary Guards seized “a foreign oil tanker,” which they claimed, ‘was smuggling fuel out of the Islamic Republic.’ Iran’s official Press TV network reported the incident, claiming that the IRGC’s navy, which maintains a naval base on Farsi Island that is located north of the Strait of Hormuz, intercepted the vessel and detained its seven crew members.
The nationalities of the crew members were not immediately made public, yet reports have identified the tanker as an Iraqi-owned vessel.
IRGC Commander Ramezan Zirahi underlined that the tanker was “transferred to the Bushehr port, where its fuel – some 700,000 liters of fuel – was handed over to authorities.” No additional details were available, and the Iranian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to TV7’s request for comment. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet that is based in neighboring Bahrain, noted that it did not have information to confirm the Iranian claims.