Iran Seizes Foreign Tanker Carrying Smuggled Fuel

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized a foreign oil tanker carrying approximately 4 million liters of smuggled fuel in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, detaining 16 foreign crew members and preparing to confiscate the vessel and its cargo for state ownership, according to Iranian officials.

The interception occurred near Qeshm Island in Iran's territorial waters, a strategically vital area in the southern province of Hormozgan close to the Strait of Hormuz. Brigadier General Abbas Gholamshahi, commander of the IRGC's First Naval Zone, stated that naval units acted on intelligence indicating the tanker had loaded fuel from smaller boats and was set to transfer it to larger vessels outside the Gulf as part of an organized smuggling network. The crew, all non-Iranian nationals, was arrested during the operation and handed over to judicial authorities, Gholamshahi said. Officials did not disclose the nationalities of the crew or the tanker's flag, noting that investigations into the broader network continue.

Two days later, Mojtaba Ghahremani, chief justice of Hormozgan Province, announced that the tanker and its cargo, valued at nearly 7,000 billion rials or about 5.2...