‘Unauthorized’ men in military garb take over contentious oil tanker in Gulf of Oman — one day after Houthi rebels strike in full-scale drone, missile attack

Iran’s navy seized an oil tanker on Thursday in the Gulf of Oman that once was at the center of a major crisis between Tehran and Washington, officials said, a seizure that further esc💃alates tensions in the Mideast waterways.

The vessel was once know﷽n as the Suez Rajan and was involved in a yearlong dispute that ultimately saw the U.S. Justice Department seize 1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil on it.

The seizure a🧜lso comes after weeks of attacks by Yemenဣ’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea, including  launched late Tuesday.

That has raised the risk of possible retaliatory strikes by U.S.-led forces now patrolling the vital waterway, especially after a United Nations Security Council vote on Wednes♋day condemning the Hout🐻his and as American and British officials warned of potential consequences over the attacks.

Iran’s state-run televis𒀰ion acknowledged the seizure late Thursday afternoon, hours after armed men boarded it.

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“The violating oil tanker Suez Rajan … stole Iranian oil by leading it to the Americans and delivered it to the Americans,” state TV said.

It sai🐼d Iran’s navy, rather than its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, conducted the seizure.

Past tense incidents at se♑a have largely involved the Guard.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which provides warnings to sailors in the Middle East, said Thursday’s seizure began early in the morning in the wa🦩ters between Oman and Iran in an area transited by ships coming in and out of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of♒ all traded oil passes.

The U.K. military-run group described receiving a report from the ship’s security manager of hearing “unknown voices over the phone” alongside the sh🎃ip’s captain. It said further efforts to contact the ship had failed and that the men who boarded the vessel wore “black military-style uniforms with blꦡack masks.”

The private security firm Ambrey said that “four to five armed persons” boarded the ship, which it identified as the oil tanker St. Nikolas. It said the men covered the surveillan🍃ce cameras as they boarded.

The tanker had been off the city of ♏Basra, Iraq, loading crude oil bound for Aliaga,🙈 Turkey, for the Turkish refinery firm Tupras.

Satellite-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press last showed the Mars♒hall Islands-flagged tanker had turned and headed toward the port of Bandar-e Jask in Iran.

The St. Nikola🌱s was earlier named the Suez R🧸ajan, associated with the Greek shipping company Empire Navigation.

In a statement to the AP, Athens-based Empire Navigation acknowledged෴ losing contact with the vessel, which has a cဣrew of 18 Filipinos and one Greek national.

“Empire have no 🗹such knowledge of a court order or the Iranian navy having seized their vessel, and have still not been contacted by anyone,” the company said.

Attention began focusing on the Suez Rajan 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 disܫtribution terminal in the Persian Gulf.

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Satellite photos and shipping 𝓡data analyzed at the time by the AP supported the allegation.

For months, the ship sat in the South China Sea off the northeast coast of Sin📖gapo🥂re before suddenly sailing for the Texas coast without explanation.

The vessel discharged its cargo to another tanker in August, which released its oil in Housไton as part of a Justice Department order.

In September, Empire Navigation pleaded gu🦄ilty to smuggling sanctioned Iranian crude oil and agreed to pay a $2.4 million fine over a case involving the♔ tanker.

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The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which patrols the Midea🥀st, did not respond to a request for comment on the incident.

After the vessel, then-Suez Rajan, headed for America, Iran seized two tankers near the Strait of H🤡ormuz, including one with cargo for major U.S. oil company Chevron Corp.

In July, the top commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s naval a🌄rm threatened further action against anyone offloading 🧸the Suez Rajan, with state media linking the recent seizures to the cargo’s fate.

Since the collapse of Iran’s nucle𓆏ar deal, waters around the strait have seen a series of ship seizures by Iran, as well as assaults targeting shipping that the U.S. Navy has blamed on Tehran.

Iran and the Navy also have had a series of tense encounters in the waterway, though recent attention has b𝓡een focused on the Houthi attacks 🎶on ships in the Red Sea.

The U.S. and its allies also have been seizing Iranian oil cargoes sinc🍨e 2019.

That has led to a series of attacks in the Mideast attributed to the Islamic Republic, as well as ship se꧒izures by Ir𒊎anian military and paramilitary forces that threaten global shipping.

The Houthis say their attacks are aimed at ha💛lting the s𝓀uffering of Palestinians in Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

However, the rebels have increasingly targeted ships with t𓆉enuous or no ties to Isra🐭el.

Meanwhile, satellite tracking data analyzed by the AP on Thursday🥂 showed that an Iranian cargo vessel suspected of being a spying p✤latform in the Red Sea had left the waterway.

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The data showed the Behshad had transited 🅷through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait into the Gulf of Aden.

The Behshad has been in the Red Sea since 2021 off Eritrea’s Dahlak archipelaඣgo.

It arrived there after 🏅Iran removed the Saviz, another suspected spy base in the Red Sea that had suffered damage in an attack that analysts attributed to Israel amid a wider shadow war of ship attacks in the region.

in an attack that analysts attributed to Israel amid a wider shad🔥ow war of ship attacks in the region.