The Iranian navy has seized a US-linked oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman as part of a long-running dispute with the US over an American court order a year ago that seized Iranian oil on the tanker and unloaded the cargo in Texas.
Official Iranian news agencies said on Wednesday that the tanker had been taken on the authority of an Iranian court order, but the news will add to the growing tensions about freedom of navigation in the region as a result of repeated Houthi rebel attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
The Houthis say their attacks are designed to disrupt the Israeli economy and the naval forces protecting Israel, primarily the US’s, as a result of the war in Gaza.
A punitive joint US-UK attack on Houthi military installations in Yemen, including the port of Hodeidah, seems imminent after Houthi leaders vowed on Thursday to defy a UN security resolution passed the previous day demanding an end to the attacks on commercial shipping.
Although the Houthis are given arms and training by Iran, the seizure of the tanker St Nikolas off the coast of Oman by six masked soldiers on Thursday morning is not directly related to the Houthi attacks.
The vessel, which was carrying Iraqi oil bound for Turkey, changed course after the boarding and headed in the direction of Bandar-e-Jask in Iran.
The tanker, previously called the Suez Rajan, was renamed after a long-running court case led to 980,000 tonnes of Iranian oil being unloaded from the ship in Texas last September. A US district court found that the owners of the ship had allowed sanctioned Iranian oil to be loaded on to the Suez Rajan, and the ship was eventually taken to Houston, where the contents were unloaded.
Facing prosecution for trading in sanctioned goods and falsifying logbooks, the owners pleaded guilty and paid a fine of more than $2.5m.
The US Department of Justice said at the time that the oil on the Greek-managed tanker was allegedly being sold by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to China. Iran never received compensation for the oil that it lost and is now seeking retribution by seizing the ship and its 15-strong crew, and taking it to Iran.
“The navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran seized an American oil tanker in the waters of the Gulf of Oman in accordance with a court order,” the official IRNA news agency said. The seizure had been in retaliation for “violation committed by the Suez Rajan ship … and the theft of Iranian oil by the United States,” it added. Iran has responded with tit-for-tat measures in the past after seizures of Iranian oil shipments.
The new point of tension between Iran and the US came as the Houthis’ top negotiator, Mohammed Abdulsalam, said the attacks in the Red Sea would have no impact on the rebel movement’s current peace talks with Saudi Arabia, which has been involved in the Yemeni civil war since 2015. He told Reuters the talks had “nothing to do with what is happening in the Gaza Strip, unless the Americans want to move other countries in the region to defend Israel, which is another matter.”
US-allied Gulf and Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, have been pressing Washington for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, saying that is the only way to prevent the conflict from spreading beyond the Gaza Strip. Washington says it will continue to stand with Tel Aviv and ensure that the 7 October attacks on Israel, in which Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 people and seized 240 hostages, can never happen again.
“The one who is dragging the region into a wider war is the one who allows the continuation of the aggression and the siege that continues for more than 100 days in the Gaza Strip,” Abdulsalam said.
The group is seeking to pressure the Israelis and Americans into a ceasefire, which would include lifting the siege on Gaza and moving towards peace and dialogue, Abdulsalam added.
They claim the UN security council resolution passed by 11 votes to 0 with four abstentions is a sign that the UN is controlled by a US veto that prevents the UN calling for a ceasefire and forces the Houthis to act in defence of Palestinians in Gaza by attacking Israeli shipping.
