As oil markets remain jittery, the cargo seizure is the latest escalation between Washington and Tehran after years of sanctions pressure by the US over Iran’s nuclear program.Iran and the United States have again found themselves on opposite sides as they provided contradictory accounts of events that led to Tehran’s seizure of an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman.
Iran’s state television on Friday showed footage of the country’s navy commandos boarding the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Advantage Sweet in a helicopter operation a day earlier.
The Turkish-operated, Chinese-owned tanker entered the Gulf of Oman after moving through the Strait of Hormuz and was reportedly bound for Houston, Texas carrying Kuwaiti crude oil for US energy firm Chevron Corp.
Iran said the tanker collided with an unidentified Iranian vessel hours before its seizure, leading to several crew members falling overboard and going missing and others getting injured. The tanker then fled the scene and ignored radio calls for eight hours before its seizure based on a court order, the Iranian army said.
“We repeatedly called on the vessel to stop so we can conduct a more comprehensive investigation, but there was no cooperation,” Mostafa Tajodini, deputy for operations at the Iranian navy, told state media.
The vessel’s manager, a Turkish firm called Advantage Tankers, said similar experiences have shown that crew members – all 24 of whom are Indian – are in no danger.
The Middle East-based US Navy 5th Fleet had said Iran’s actions constituted a violation of international law and called on Tehran to immediately release the tanker.
“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 said, adding this was at least the fifth commercial vessel taken by Iran in the past two years.
On Friday, the Reuters news agency reported the seizure of the vessel came as a response to the confiscation of an oil tanker by the US in an effort to enforce its unilateral sanctions on Tehran.
The report said the Iran-linked tanker was the Marshall Islands-flagged Suez Rajan that had a Greece-based manager and was last reported to be positioned near Southern Africa before being seized several days prior to the taking of the Advantage Sweet vessel by Iran.
There are precedents for such tit-for-tat moves, with the US trying to confiscate a cargo of Iranian oil near Greece last year, prompting Tehran to seize two Greek tankers and hold them for months. The supreme court in Greece ultimately ordered the cargo returned to Iran, and the Greek vessels were also released.
Washington imposed its harshest-ever sanctions on Iran, which include a major focus on impeding Tehran’s oil sales, after former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
Amid deadlocked efforts to restore the nuclear accord, which put curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, Iran has been circumventing the embargoes and steadily boosting its oil sales.
Twelve US senators on Thursday urged President Joe Biden to remove Treasury Department policy hurdles that have impeded the seizure of more Iranian oil shipments in a call that is likely to increase tensions.
Iran does not recognise the sanctions, and its oil exports have been rising.
Tehran says its nuclear program is for civilian purposes while Washington suspects Iran wants to develop a nuclear bomb.
Maritime security company Ambrey said the US confiscation took place at least five days before Iran’s action on Thursday.
“Ambrey has assessed the seizure by the Iranian Navy to be in response to the US action,” it said in an advisory to clients.
“Both tankers were Suezmax-sized. Iran has previously responded tit-for-tat following seizures of Iranian oil cargo.”
The sources familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue, said Washington took control of the oil cargo aboard the Marshall Islands tanker Suez Rajan after securing an earlier court order.
The tanker’s last reported position was near southern Africa on April 22, ship tracking data showed.
The vessel’s Greece-based manager, Empire Navigation, and the US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The US Navy said Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, the latest seizure or attack by Tehran on commercial vessels in sensitive Gulf waters.
Iranian state TV said on Friday the tanker ignored radio calls for eight hours following a collision with an Iranian boat, which left several crewmen injured and three missing.
“Before using force, we tried to call the vessel …to stop but they did not cooperate,” Iranian deputy navy commander Rear Admiral Mostafa Tajodini told the broadcaster.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was aware of the Gulf of Oman seizure and reaffirmed support for international maritime law, a UN spokesperson said on Friday.
Last year the US tried to confiscate a cargo of Iranian oil near Greece, which prompted Tehran to seize two Greek tankers in the Gulf.
Greece’s supreme court ordered the cargo returned to Iran. The two Greek tankers were later released.
In a step likely to exacerbate tensions, 12 US senators on Thursday urged President Joe Biden to remove Treasury Department policy hurdles that have prevented the Department of Homeland Security from seizing Iranian oil shipments for more than a year.
In 2020, Washington confiscated four cargoes of Iranian fuel aboard foreign ships that were bound for Venezuela and transferred them with the help of undisclosed foreign partners onto two other ships which then sailed to the US.