Shortly following Tehran threatened to punish Athens, in response to Iranian oil tanker seized near Greece Last week and the confiscation of its cargo, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard confirmed, on Friday evening, the detention of two Greek ships (Prudent and Rior, and Delta Poseidon) while they were sailing in the territorial waters of the Persian Gulf, allegedly for violating maritime rules.
The Revolutionary Guards threatened to seize 17 Greek tankers present in the region as well, according to what the official Iranian “Tasnim” news agency quoted an informed source as saying.
For its part, Lloyd List, a shipping news website, stated that Iranian forces boarded the Greek-flagged tanker Prudent and Warrior, and later it was towed towards the port of Bandar Abbas, indicating that it was carrying an oil shipment from the Iraqi port of Basra to the United States.
He also said that the same tanker was carrying 24 people from Greece and the Philippines. While shipping sites reported that the two tankers were carrying a crew of 49 people.
Oil from Iraq..and Qatar
In turn, the Tankers Trackers website, which tracks the movement of ships, revealed that the two tankers are carrying oil from Iraq and Qatar, adding, “We expect the two Greek tankers to dock in Bandar Abbas.”
Also, sources revealed that the Revolutionary Guards used a helicopter to control the Greek tanker (Delta Poseidon).
Athens: Tehran used violence
On the other hand, the Greek Foreign Ministry, in a statement, accused Iran on Friday of piracy, and lodged an official protest with the Iranian ambassador to Athens, due to the Iranian forces’ violent detention of two Greek-flagged ships in the Persian Gulf.
Greece called for the immediate release of the two ships and their crews, noting that 9 of the tankers’ crew are Greeks.
America enters the line
In addition, the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in the Middle East announced on Friday that it was looking into reports that Iran had seized two Greek oil tankers following Tehran threatened to take action. punitive measures once morest Athens for seizing one of the Iranian oil tankers.
Captain Timothy Hawkins, an official with the Fifth Fleet, told The Associated Press that the US Navy was continuing to investigate the incident. He did not go into details.
Threat of punitive action
Today, Tehran threatened to take punitive measures once morest Greece in response to its confiscation of an Iranian oil shipment that it said would deliver its cargo to the United States, according to “Archyde.com”.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry also demanded the release of the oil tanker (Lana), considering that this constitutes a “violation” of international laws.
For its part, Athens announced Wednesday that it will deliver to Washington a cargo of Iranian oil that was on board a tanker seized by the Greek authorities at the request of the American judiciary.
Iranian oil tanker seized near Greece – Archyde.com
It is noteworthy that on April 19, the Greek authorities detained the Russian oil tanker “Pegas” off the island of Evia (its name was changed a few days later to “Lana”), in implementation of European Union sanctions once morest the backdrop of the Russian operation in Ukraine.
This step came in implementation of the tightening of US and Western sanctions once morest Russia as a result of the operation it launched in Ukraine on February 24, on the one hand, and on the other hand, in line with the sanctions that Washington continues to impose on Tehran, especially with regard to oil, since its unilateral withdrawal from the signed nuclear agreement. year 2018.
