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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized a foreign oil tanker in the Persian Gulf on July 31st, compounding concerns about the safety of shipping in a region crucial to oil exports.
The vessel – the third foreign ship seized by the guards in the Gulf since July 14th – is suspected of smuggling a large volume of fuel, the guards said on their Sepah News portal, without giving any details about the flag or nationality of the ship or its operator.
Sepah News reported that the ship was carrying 700,000 litres (4,403 barrels) of smuggled fuel when it was seized near Farsi Island in the western part of the Gulf, off Iran’s southwestern coast. That’s about 400 miles (640km) from the Strait of Hormuz, which has been at the centre of Iran’s standoff with the West in recent weeks.
The allegedly smuggled volume is a minuscule amount in oil terms: the largest supertankers are capable of hauling cargoes of 2 million barrels. Even so the impounding of the ship could escalate the tensions that have flared in the region’s waters as Iran resists US sanctions that are crippling its all-important oil exports and hits back after one of its ships was seized on July 4th near Gibraltar.
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Iran grabbed a British tanker, the Stena Impero, in Hormuz two weeks later and continues to hold it.
Oil flows
The passage at the mouth of the Persian Gulf accounts for about a third of the world’s seaborne oil flows. To reduce the risks of navigating the waterway the British navy has started to escort British ships, and a plan for a European naval mission is taking shape.
The US has embarked on a parallel operation that the Europeans are wary of joining for fear of being identified with President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure campaign” against Iran and its economy.
In response to that campaign Iran has abandoned restrictions on uranium enrichment, downed a US drone and test-fired a ballistic missile. It’s also been accused of carrying out a number of attacks on tankers near Hormuz. – Reuters