Muscat: Iranian judicial authorities have seized a foreign oil tanker in the Sea of Oman and detained its 18 crew members. The seizure took place off the port city of Jask in Iranian-controlled waters. Reports indicate that the tanker was transporting approximately 6 million liters of smuggled fuel.

According to Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, provincial judiciary officials in southern Hormozgan Province, as cited by Tasnim News Agency, stated that the tanker was impounded after it was intercepted and inspected. Mojtaba Ghahremani, head of the provincial judiciary in Hormozgan, noted that the tanker was involved in the organized transportation of smuggled fuel and had ignored orders to stop, attempting to flee instead.

Ghahremani further revealed that the vessel lacked proper navigational and cargo documents and had its radar turned off. He also accused the crew of deliberately destroying the ship’s equipment during the seizure. Fars, another semiofficial news agency, reported that the crew members, hailin
g from South Asian countries such as India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, were being questioned.

The country that owns the vessel remains unnamed. Tehran has a history of seizing ships in the Persian Gulf, a critical waterway for global fuel supplies. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has previously accused seized tankers of carrying smuggled fuel, although these claims often remain unsubstantiated.

This incident follows the United States’ recent seizure of a Tehran-linked tanker off the coast of Venezuela. The vessel had been under US Treasury Department sanctions since 2022 for allegedly aiding in the smuggling of Iranian oil as part of a network led by Ukrainian national Viktor Artemov.