US demands Iran release seized oil tanker ‘immediately’

AFP | Washington                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The United States yesterday demanded that Iran immediately release a ship seized off Oman’s coast in avowed retaliation for US actions and said it was looking at steps to take.

“The Iranian government must immediately release the ship and its crew. This unlawful seizure of a commercial vessel is just the latest behavior by Iran or enabled by Iran aimed at disrupting international commerce,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

Iran’s navy said it took over the St. Nicholas, a Greek-owned, Marshall Islands-flagged ship earlier known as the Suez Rajan, in accordance with an Iranian court order after US “theft” of the oil during an earlier seizure.

The US in September said it had seized the ship’s 980,000 barrels of crude oil, which US prosecutors say were being sold by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards to China. Former president Donald Trump unilaterally imposed a US embargo on other countries buying Iranian oil in a bid to pressure the clerical state, including over its contested nuclear program.

President Joe Biden’s administration negotiated to restore a nuclear deal in which sanctions would be relaxed, but talks broke down and tensions have soared since an October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, with the Iranian-linked Houthi rebels in Yemen firing on international vessels in avowed solidarity with the Palestinians. “It’s important to be incredibly clear that the United States continues to vigorously enforce our sanction sanctions on Iran,” Patel said.