(Daily Mail) Iran has claimed responsibility for the hijacking of an oil tanker by ‘six military men’ in the Gulf of Oman this morning that once was at the centre of a major crisis between Tehran and Washington.
The seizure of the tanker was carried out upon an Iranian judicial order, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said this afternoon, shortly after the vessel appeared to have changed course towards Iran.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency later confirmed a tanker had been seized by Iran’s navy.
The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker St Nikolas was boarded by armed intruders as it sailed close to the Omani city of Sohar, according to British maritime security firm Ambrey.
Its AIS tracking system was turned off as it headed in the direction of the Iranian port of Bandar-e-Jask, and security cameras were covered by the hijackers as they took control of the ship.
The vessel is manned by a crew of 19 including 18 Filipino nationals and one Greek national, the operator said, adding it was chartered by Turkish oil refiner Tupras.
Some 145,000 metric tonnes of oil are thought to be loaded on the ship which was heading to Aliaga in western Turkey, its operator Empire Navigation told Reuters, before it lost contact with the vessel.
The boarding of the ship – named as the St. Nikolas oil and chemical tanker (pictured, file photo)- occurred in waters between Oman and Iran , 50 nautical miles east of Oman’s Sohar, according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said the incident began early in the morning, in waters between Oman and Iran, 50 nautical miles east of Oman’s Sohar
Details remained unclear in what was apparently the latest seizure of a vessel in the tense Middle East waterways.
But the seizure comes after weeks of attacks by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea, including their largest barrage ever of drones and missiles launched late Tuesday.
That has raised the risk of possible retaliatory strikes by US-led forces now patrolling the vital waterway, especially after a United Nations Security Council vote on Wednesday condemning the Houthis and as American and British officials warned of potential consequences over the attacks.
St. Nikolas was once known as the Suez Rajan and had been involved in a yearlong dispute that ultimately saw the US Justice Department seize 1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil on it.
The UK military-run UKMTO described receiving a report from the ship’s security manager of hearing ‘unknown voices over the phone’ alongside with the ship’s captain.
A statement from UKMTO said that it was unable to make further contact with the vessel and that authorities were investigating the incident.
The private intelligence firm Ambrey said that ‘six military men’ boarded the ship and had covered the surveillance cameras as they boarded.
The US Navy’s 5th Fleet, which patrols the Mideast, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press over the incident.
Since the collapse of Iran’s nuclear deal, waters around the strait have seen a series of ship seizures by Iran, as well as assaults targeting shipping that the Navy has blamed on Tehran.
Iran and the Navy also have had a series of tense encounters in the waterway, though recent attention has been focused on the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen attacking ships in the Red Sea amid Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The United States and its allies also have been seizing Iranian oil cargoes since 2019.
That has led to a series of attacks in the Mideast attributed to the Islamic Republic, as well as ship seizures by Iranian military and paramilitary forces that threaten global shipping.
Attention began focusing on the Suez Rajan, as it was then named, in February 2022, when the group United Against Nuclear Iran said it suspected the tanker carried oil from Iran’s Khargh Island, its main oil distribution terminal in the Persian Gulf.
Satellite photos and shipping data analysed at the time by the the Associated Press supported the allegation.
For months, the ship sat in the South China Sea off the northeast coast of Singapore before suddenly sailing for the Texas coast without explanation.
