DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran seized a Panama-flagged oil tanker within the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the second-such seize by Tehran in current days, the U.S. Navy stated.
The Navy’s Mideast-based fifth Fleet recognized the vessel because the Niovi. It stated Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized the ship.
The Navy printed photos of small Guard vessels surrounding the tanker.
Iran didn’t instantly acknowledge the seizure.
Final week, Iran seized an oil tanker carrying crude for Chevron amid wider tensions between Tehran and the U.S. over its nuclear program. The Benefit Candy had 23 Indians and one Russian on board.
Wednesday’s seizure by Iran was the most recent in a string of ship seizures and explosions to roil the area.
The incidents started after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the USA from Iran’s nuclear take care of world powers, which noticed Tehran drastically restrict its enrichment of uranium in trade for the lifting of financial sanctions.
Additionally, the U.S. Navy has blamed Iran for a sequence of limpet mine assaults on vessels that broken tankers in 2019, in addition to for a deadly drone assault on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew members in 2021.
Tehran denies finishing up the assaults, however a wider shadow battle between Iran and the West has performed out within the area’s risky waters. Iranian tanker seizures have been part of it since 2019. The final main seizure earlier than current days got here when Iran took two Greek tankers in Could and held them till November.