KeithBinns/iStock(TEHRAN, Iran) — Iran claims it has seized a “foreign vessel” carrying oil with 12 crew members aboard in the Persian Gulf, according to a statement from the country’s Republican Guard carried by the state media agency Fars.
The statement says the tanker was carrying 1 million liters of smuggled oil that it had picked up from small Iranian ships and was sailing towards foreign ships with it. The ship was seized south of Lark Island in the Strait of Hormuz, the IRGC statement quoted by Fars says.
“During the patrolling mission in the Persian Gulf aiming at the discovery and confrontation with organized smuggling on Sunday, 14th of July2019, the IRGC’s first region navy patrol made the seizure of a foreign vessel in surprise after it made sure the vessel was carrying one million liters smuggled fuel. The seizure was coordinated with the judiciary and happened in the south of Lark Island,” the IRGC statement says.
“This ship which has the capacity of carrying 2 million liter of oil, had 12 crew members on board and was sailing towards foreign ships farther away to take the smuggled oil it had got from Iranian dhows. But the mission was failed with IRGC fighters’ smart move,” the statement adds.
According to Fars, the IRGC’s Navy First Region statement denied western media’s claims about the seizure of any other ships over the past few days. It adds that the ship’s smuggling case is on the judiciary process.
The statement also says the patrolling units of the IRGC Navy keeps confronting organized smuggling and will defend the interests of the Iranian nation.
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