Iran held up a second oil tanker near the Strait of Hormuz on July 19—the Liberian-flagged, British-operated vessel Mesdar—within an hour after having seized the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Imperio in the same area.
The Liberian-flagged Mesdar was later allowed to continue its course after being warned over safety and environmental issues and being told to comply with environmental regulations, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
The manager of the Mesdar, Norbulk, said the vessel was boarded by armed personnel but was later allowed to continue its voyage. It added that the crew was safe and well.
“These seizures are unacceptable. It is essential that freedom of navigation is maintained and that all ships can move safely and freely in the region,” British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said, commenting on both incidents on July 19.
“We will respond in a way that is considered but robust and we are absolutely clear that if this situation is not resolved quickly there will be serious consequences,” Hunt later told reporters.
He added that Britain was “not looking at military options, we are looking at a diplomatic way to resolve the situation.”
U.S. President Donald Trump said he would talk to Britain about the issue.
“This only goes to show what I’m saying about Iran: Trouble, nothing but trouble,” he told reporters at the White House.
Central Command said the United States has since intensified air patrols over the Strait of Hormuz in response to the latest seizures. Lt. Col. Earl Brown, a Central Command spokesman, said a small number of additional patrol aircraft are flying in international airspace to monitor the situation, The Associated Press reported.
The seizures come two weeks after the British navy seized an Iranian tanker in Gibraltar on July 4. Iran’s Grace 1 tanker was believed to have been breaching European Union sanctions by smuggling oil to Syria. But Iran denies that allegation and has repeatedly called for the ship’s release.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had said on July 16 that Iran would respond to Britain’s “piracy” over the Grace 1 tanker seizure.
On July 19, both the Stena Impero and Mesdar were tracked as having suddenly headed off course within 40 minutes of each other.
The Mesdar was originally heading toward the Saudi port of Ras Tanura. Refinitiv tracking data showed that the oil tanker had gone off course and moved north toward Iran’s coast around 1600 GMT before its tracking signal went out.
Within two hours, the tracking signal was turned back on, and data showed the Mesdar was headed westward away from Iran. Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency had then tweeted that the Mesdar had left Iran’s territorial waters.
Refinitiv tracking data showed that the Swedish-owned Stena Imperio was going off course at about 1517 GMT and was heading toward Iran. The vessel had originally been heading toward Saudi port of Jubail.
British Ship ‘Remains Uncontactable’
According to Reuters, Iran’s state television reported that the Islamic regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on July 19 that it had captured the Stena Impero at the request of Iranian authorities for “not following international maritime regulations.”
Tasnim reported that the Stena Impero had been causing pollution by dumping oil residue.
Allahmorad Afifipour, head of Ports and Maritime Organisation in southern Hormozgan province, reportedly told Tasnim: “We received reports that the British Stena Impero oil tanker was causing incidents and, therefore, we asked the military to direct it to Bandar Abbas port for the necessary probes.”
The official IRNA news agency reported that an Iranian military source said the Stena Impero “had turned off its tracker and ignored several warnings by the Guards before being captured.”
Reuters also reported that Afifipour told Fars news agency that Stena Impero was in an accident with an Iranian fishing boat.
“It got involved in an accident with an Iranian fishing boat… When the boat sent a distress call, the British-flagged ship ignored it,” Afifipour said according to Fars. “The tanker is now at Iran’s Bandar Abbas port and all its 23 crew members will remain on the ship until the probe is over.”
But the vessel’s owner, Stena Bulk, and ship manager, Northern Marine Management, in their latest statement said that the Stena Imperio was “in full compliance with all navigation and international regulations.”
The two companies had confirmed the Stena Imperio’s seizure in an earlier joint statement. Their latest statement said that the vessel “is no longer under the control of the crew and remains uncontactable.”
“Soon after the vessel was approached by unidentified small naval craft and a helicopter during her transit of the Strait of Hormuz in international waters at approximate 1600 hrs BST today, the vessel suddenly deviated from her passage to Jubail and headed north towards Iran,” the two companies stated.
“There are 23 seafarers onboard of Indian, Russian, Latvian and Filipino nationality,” Erik Hanell, President and Chief Executive of Stena Bulk, said in the statement. “There have been no reported injuries and the safety and welfare of our crew remains our primary focus.”
“We are in close contact with both the UK and Swedish government authorities to resolve this situation and we are liaising closely with our seafarers’ families.”
Drone Taken Down
Just a day before, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. Navy took down an Iranian drone near the Strait of Hormuz.
“The Boxer took defensive action against an Iranian drone, which had closed into a near distance, approximately 1,000 yards,” Trump said July 18 about the incident in the strait that lies between the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf.
The president was referring to the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship.
The Associated Press reported that the six attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks have signalled a deterioration in maritime security and that the United States has blamed Iran for the attacks. Iran has denied the allegations.
Tensions between Iran and the United States, along with U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia, have risen ever since Washington pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. The Obama administration said the deal between Iran and global powers would help curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Trump has been increasing pressure on Iran’s leaders since May 2018 when he quit the Iran nuclear deal and signed an Executive Order to reimpose tight sanctions on Iran previously lifted as a part of the deal. The sanctions are an effort to force the Islamic regime to change a plethora of activities the administration finds unacceptable.
“We will be instituting the highest level of economic sanction,” Trump said at the time. “America will not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail.”
In April, Trump announced he would designate Iran’s IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization. The IRGC is a branch of the Iranian military controlled by the regime’s Supreme Leader Khamenei. The branch does not respond to the country’s quasi-democratically elected government.
While Iran says its missile program is defensive only, it has repeatedly threatened to disrupt oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation to the United States’s sanctions.
The Strait of Hormuz is a major chokepoint through which about a fifth of all oil consumed globally passes through. It is located between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
Jack Phillips, Petr Svab, The Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
