The Iranian Navy announced that a ship was captured this Thursday. “American tanker” Hours after the British Navy reported the seizure of a ship in the Arabian Sea “Unauthorized armed persons” in those waters.
“The Navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran announced. watch “An American tanker was killed in the waters of the Oman Sea by court decision,” the Iranian naval force said in a brief statement published by the Tasnim agency.
Iranian officials They did not report the name of the ship nor did they offer any further details about it.
The brief announcement came hours after the British Navy reported it had boarded a ship “by 4-5 unauthorized gunmen at approximately 3.30 GMTIn an incident that occurred 50 miles northeast of Sohar, Oman.
Seized ship oil tanker “St. Nicholas” The ship sails under the flag of the Marshall Islands and belongs to the Greek shipping company Empire Navigation.
According to the Greek government agency AMNA, there are a total of people on board. 19 people were Greek nationals and 18 were Filipino nationals.
The ship in question – while still sailing under the name “Rajan of Suez“- was involved in a year-long dispute that resulted in the US Justice Department seizing one million barrels of Iranian crude oil he was carrying.
According to AMNA, the ship was loaded from Basra, Iraq. 145,000 tons of oil The final destination was the city of Aliağa (Turkey), as it was leased by the Turkish state oil company Tüpraş.
However, the ship is currently heading towards the Iranian port. Bandar-e-JaskAccording to a statement published by British maritime security company Ambrey Analytics.