DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An oil tanker that was once at the center of a crisis between Iran and the United States was boarded and seized by Iranian forces in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, Iranian state media said, citing the country's navy. after it was reported that “Unauthorized” men in military uniforms had boarded the ship.
A map shows the Strait of Hormuz, a major waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, with Iran to the north and the United Arab Emirates and the Oman exclave of Musandam to the south. Getty/iStockphoto
“The Navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran has announced the seizure of an American oil tanker in the waters of the Sea of Oman with a court order,” Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency, linked to the country's powerful Revolutionary Guards, said in a message posted on its website Channel was published on the social media app Telegram. The state news agency IRNA also reported on the navy's statement.
Suspicion immediately fell on Iran because the ship, once known as the Suez Rajan, was embroiled in a years-long dispute in which the U.S. Justice Department eventually seized 1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil. Another Iranian news agency, Mehr, quoted the Navy as saying Thursday's seizure was “retaliation” for the previous U.S. action against the tanker.
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Satellite tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press most recently showed that the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, now named St. Nikolas, reversed course and headed toward the port of Bandar-e Jask, Iran. The Marshall Islands is an independent nation but has close historical and economic ties to the United States.
An image provided by data service Refnitiv Eikon shows a map showing the path of the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker St. Nikolas in the Gulf of Oman, January 11, 2024. REFINITIV EIKON/Portal
The seizure comes after weeks of attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea, including the largest-ever barrage of drones and missiles fired late Tuesday.
Eighteen drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles and one anti-ship missile were fired by the Iran-backed Houthis in this salvo alone, but all were successfully shot down, the US military's Central Command said.
Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthis, said on Wednesday that the group fired a “large number” of rockets and drones at a US ship that was “supporting” Israel during its war against Hamas in Gaza.
The attacks on shipping have raised the risk of possible retaliation from U.S.-led troops currently patrolling the vital waterway, particularly after a U.N. Security Council vote on Wednesday condemning the Houthis and after American and British officials warned of possible had warned about the consequences of the attacks.
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The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which warns sailors in the Middle East, said Thursday's apparent seizure began early this morning when “unauthorized” gunmen boarded the tanker in waters between Oman and Iran. The area is heavily traversed by ships entering and leaving the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world's traded oil flows.
The British military-led group described receiving a report from the ship's security manager that “unknown voices were heard on the telephone” alongside the ship's captain. It went on to say that further attempts to contact the ship had failed and that the men who boarded the ship were wearing “black military uniforms with black masks.”
Private security firm Ambrey said “four to five armed individuals” boarded the ship, which it called the St. Nikolas” identified. It was said that the men covered the surveillance cameras when they got in.
An oil tanker then known as Suez Rajan, now called St. Nikolas and flying the Marshall Islands flag, is seen in Japan's Tokyo Bay in an Oct. 4, 2020, file photo. Portal/Daisuke Nimura
The tanker had been traveling off the city of Basra in Iraq and was loading crude oil for the Turkish refinery Tupras to Aliaga in Turkey.
The St. Nikolas was previously called Suez Rajan and was affiliated with the Greek shipping company Empire Navigation. In a statement to the AP, Athens-based Empire Navigation admitted it had lost contact with the ship, which has a crew of 18 Filipinos and one Greek national. The company did not provide further details.
Attention first turned to the Suez Rajan when the group United Against Nuclear Iran said it suspected the tanker was carrying oil from Iran's Khargh island, the main oil distribution terminal in the Persian Gulf. Satellite photos and shipping data analyzed by the AP at the time supported the claim.
The ship sat in the South China Sea off the northeast coast of Singapore for months before suddenly sailing toward the Texas coast without explanation. The ship unloaded its cargo in August onto another tanker, which released its oil in Houston under a Justice Department order.
In September, Empire Navigation pleaded guilty to smuggling sanctioned Iranian crude oil and agreed to pay a $2.4 million fine in the tanker case.
The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which patrols the Middle East, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident. Before Tasnim's report, Iran's state news agency IRNA had mentioned the boarding, citing foreign reports, but said nothing further. The Iranian mission to the United Nations also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After the ship, the then Suez Rajan, headed for America in 2022, Iran seized two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, including one carrying cargo for major U.S. oil company Chevron Corp. In July, the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guard Navy threatened further action against anyone who unloaded the Suez Rajan, with state media linking recent seizures to the cargo's fate.
Since the collapse of the Iran nuclear deal, there have been a number of ship seizures by Iran in the waters around the strait, as well as attacks on ships that the navy blamed on Tehran. Iran and the Navy have also had a series of tense encounters in the waterway, with attention recently focused on Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
Since 2019, the US and its allies have also been seizing Iranian oil cargoes. This has led to a series of attacks in the Middle East attributed to the Islamic Republic, as well as ship seizures by Iranian military and paramilitary forces, endangering global shipping.
The Houthis say their attacks are aimed at halting the suffering of Palestinians in Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. However, the rebels have increasingly targeted ships that have little or no ties to Israel.
Meanwhile, satellite tracking data analyzed by the AP on Thursday showed that an Iranian cargo ship suspected of being a spy platform in the Red Sea had left the waterway. The data showed that the Behshad had entered the Gulf of Aden through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The Behshad has been in the Red Sea off Eritrea's Dahlak Archipelago since 2021. It arrived there after Iran removed the Saviz, another suspected spy base in the Red Sea that was damaged in an attack that analysts attributed to Israel, amid a larger shadow war of ship attacks in the region.
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