Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps have seized a foreign tanker accused of smuggling oil with a crew of 12.
The report yesterday did not identify the impounded vessel, but said it was smuggling one million litres of fuel from Iranian smugglers to foreign customers.
The developments came amid questions over the whereabouts of a Panamanian-flagged ship travelling through the Strait of Hormuz.
TankerTrackers, an online oil-shipment tracking service, said the Riah had crossed into Iranian waters on Sunday.
At that point, the tanker’s automatic identification system stopped sending signals.
The questions over Riah’s status come amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington over the former’s nuclear programme and a standoff between Iran and the United Kingdom over the British Royal Marines’ seizure of an Iranian oil tanker earlier in July.