Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it had seized a foreign vessel near the strategic Strait of Hormuz and detained its crew for allegedly smuggling fuel out of the Islamic republic.
The incident is the latest to impact shipping in the oil-rich Gulf and comes amid heightened tensions in the region as US sanctions have thwarted Iran’s ability to export oil.
“In a bid to identify and fight organised smuggling . . . the patrol boats of the first zone of the guards’ naval forces in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz abruptly stopped one of the foreign vessels which carried 1m litres of smuggled fuel,” a statement by the guards’ naval forces said on Thursday.