Tehran stated Saturday that the crew of two Greek oil tankers seized by Iran within the Gulf a day earlier haven’t been detained, contradicting feedback from Greece’s International Ministry.
“The crew of the 2 Greek tankers haven’t been arrested, and all crew members … are in good well being and are being protected, and supplied with crucial providers whereas on board [their ships],” the nation’s Ports and Maritime Group stated in a press release carried by state media.
The 2 vessels, Delta Poseidon and Prudent Warrior, each crusing underneath the Greek flag, had been stopped by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards over unspecified “maritime violations,” the physique stated.
The ships are each Suezmaxes, a time period for the most important ships that may traverse the Suez Canal, and had simply come from Iraq’s Basra oil terminal, loaded with crude, in accordance with monitoring knowledge from MarineTraffic.com.
Athens stated crews had been ‘held captive’
Hours after Friday’s incident, Greece stated the crew of each ships — 44 individuals between them — had been being “held captive” after Iranian navy helicopters landed gunmen on the 2 tankers.
Athens stated the seizure was “tantamount to acts of piracy,” demanded the instant launch of the crews and known as for the ships to be allowed to proceed their journey.
Athens additionally notified all Greek ships within the Gulf and known as on Greek residents to keep away from touring to Iran.
Initially detained for its hyperlinks to Russia, the tanker Lana was discovered to be carrying Iranian oil
The seizure of the 2 tankers was in obvious retaliation for the confiscation final month by Greece of an Iranian oil tanker — Lana — held off the Greek coast on behalf of the US.
Russia-linked ship carried Iranian oil
The Lana and its Russian crew had been later launched after the oil cargo was eliminated, Reuters information company reported on Thursday.
Greek media stated the Lana had solely been stopped as a result of the ship sought refuge in April from a robust storm in a bay on the Greek island of Euboea.
Authorities discovered that the tanker belonged to Russia’s Promsvyazbank, a state-backed, previously non-public Russian financial institution from Moscow, which is topic to EU sanctions.
In accordance with the stories, it later transpired that the tanker had been bought to a non-sanctioned Russian financial institution in March and was as a consequence of be launched.
Authorities then discovered that the tanker was carrying Iranian oil and the US authorities demanded that it stay confiscated, Greek media stated.
String of comparable incidents
The most recent incidents bear similarities to the seizure by Iran of a British tanker close to the Strait of Hormuz in 2019, two weeks after British forces detained an Iranian oil ship close to Gibraltar, accusing it of transport gas to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions.
Iranian hijackers additionally stormed and briefly captured a Panama-flagged asphalt tanker off the United Arab Emirates final yr, and briefly seized and held a Vietnamese tanker in November.
As well as, Iran final yr seized and held a South Korean-flagged tanker for months amid a dispute over billions of {dollars} of frozen property Seoul holds.
Tensions between Iran and the West stay excessive over Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal, which is now in jeopardy after the US pulled out of the settlement in 2018.
Tehran is enriching extra uranium, nearer to weapons-grade ranges than ever earlier than, which has raised considerations that there could possibly be no manner of reviving the deal.
mm/wd (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)