A screenshot of a video showing fast-attack craft from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy swarming Panama-flagged oil tanker Niovi as it transits the Strait of Hormuz, May 3, 2023. (Photo by U.S. Navy)
Iran seized a Panama-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on May 3, the second-such capture by Tehran in a week, the United States Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) said.
The Bahrain-based command identified the vessel as the Niovi. It said Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) carried out the seizure.
According to a statement by NAVCENT, the oil tanker departed Dubai and was transiting from the Arabian Gulf toward the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates when a dozen IRGCN fast-attack craft swarmed the vessel in the middle of the strait.
A photo released by the command dozen Guard vessels surrounding the tanker, which was forced to reverse course and head toward Iranian territorial waters off the coast of Bandar ‘Abbas.
Just six days earlier, Iranian naval forces seized Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker Advantage Sweet while it transited international waters in the Gulf of Oman.
“Iran’s actions are contrary to international law and disruptive to regional security and stability,” NAVCENT’s statement reads. “Iran’s continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters are unwarranted, irresponsible and a present threat to maritime security and the global economy.”
Reports that appeared after the capture of the U.S.-bound Advantage Sweet revealed that it was a retaliation to the recent seizure of an Iranian oil shipment by the U.S.
Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Washington took control of an oil shipment aboard the China-bound Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Suez Rajan on April 22 after securing an earlier court order. The tanker’s last reported position was near southern Africa.
Iran seized tankers shipping oil to western countries on several occasions in the last few years, but only as a retaliation to the capture of its tankers or oil shipments.
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