Iran seized two foreign oil tankers in the Persian Gulf on Thursday, state television reported, as U.S.-Iran relations remained tense ahead of planned nuclear talks in Muscat, Oman. The report did not identify the tankers’ nationalities or the flags they were flying under, according to the account carried by the Associated Press.
Iranian state media said the Revolutionary Guard navy had seized the vessels on charges of smuggling fuel. Gen. Heidar Honarian Mojarrad, identified by the report as a regional commander with the Revolutionary Guard’s navy, said the tankers were carrying about 1 million liters of fuel, including diesel.
Mojarrad said the tankers were seized near Farsi island and were transferred to Bushehr. He also said the two tankers’ 15 crew members were “in custody of judicial bodies,” without providing the crews’ nationalities.
The report said Iran occasionally seizes oil-carrying vessels in the region on similar allegations. It cited earlier seizures in December and November, including the seizure of a foreign tanker as it traveled the Strait of Hormuz in December, when 16 crew members were detained.
The Associated Press report also tied Thursday’s seizure to a broader context of ship attacks in the region. It said the West has blamed Iran for limpet mine attacks that damaged tankers in 2019 and for a drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker in 2021 that killed two European crew members.
The report said those attacks began after former U.S. President Donald Trump, in his first term, unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Thursday’s seizure came the day before the expected U.S.-Iran meeting for nuclear talks, with tensions remaining high following what the report described as Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests last month.