IRAN has said its Revolutionary Guard seized a foreign oil tanker and its crew of 12 for smuggling fuel out of the country.
Hours later, state TV released video showing the vessel to be a United Arab Emirates-based ship that had vanished in Iranian waters over the weekend.
The Panamanian-flagged oil tanker MT Riah stopped transmitting its location overnight on Sunday near Qeshm Island, which has a Revolutionary Guard base on it.
Iran’s state television did not at first identify the seized vessel but said it was intercepted on Sunday. It said the oil tanker had 12 foreign crew members on board and was involved in smuggling 1 million litres of fuel from Iranian smugglers to foreign customers.
The report said the oil tanker was intercepted in south of Iran’s Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz.
Hours after that initial report, Iranian TV released footage of the ship surrounded by Guard vessels and showed the registration number painted on its bridge, matching that of the UAE-based MT Riah.
It was not immediately clear whether the seizure was a straightforward attempt by Iran to curb oil smuggling or also an effort to assert its authority in the strait and send a message to its rivals in the region.
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