Tehran, Mar. 31, (dpa/GNA) – Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has seized two oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, accusing them of smuggling fuel, state news agency IRNA reported on Monday.
The vessels are on their way to Bushehr, a port city in south-western Iran, where over 3 million litres of fuel are set to be offloaded, according to the report.
It initially remained unclear under which flag the two oil tankers were sailing.
Leading Iranian navy commanders have repeatedly threatened in recent months to block the important shipping route in the Persian Gulf amid rising military tensions.
The United States has accused the Iranian navy of disrupting commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman – which link the Persian Gulf off the coast of Iran with the Indian Ocean.
The Strait of Hormuz, a waterway between Iran and Oman around 55 kilometres wide, is considered as one of the most important shipping routes for global oil trade.
Tensions between Tehran and Washington have been on the rise in recent days, with US President Donald Trump threatening Iran with military action if it does not agree to a deal to limit its nuclear programme.
“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing, and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before,” Trump said in comments to the US broadcaster NBC on Sunday.
In a letter delivered to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier this month, Trump said Tehran must either negotiate a new nuclear deal or face a military solution.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday again rejected direct negotiations over the country’s nuclear programme with the Trump administration, saying instead that Tehran was open to indirect negotiations.
In 2018, during his first term in office, Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Vienna nuclear deal which was intended to restrict Iran’s nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions. Since then, Tehran has also stopped adhering to the terms of the agreement.
GNA
PDC