Iranian forces seized an oil tanker named Talara as it transited through the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. The Talara is flagged in the Marshall Islands, a Central Pacific island chain protected by the United States, so the seizure could prompt a major international incident.
The Talara was sailing from the deep-water United Arab Emirates (UAE) port of Hamriyah to Singapore with a load of high-sulphur gasoil fuel when it passed through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane along the Iranian coast. Iran often threatens to blockade the Strait of Hormuz when the regime in Tehran is feeling nervous or aggressive.
According to maritime security firm Ambrey, the tanker was “approached by three small boats” as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the theocratically-controlled wing of the Iranian military and a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, uses swarms of small boats for its intercept operations.
Iranian forces reportedly intercepted the Talara again as it entered the Gulf of Oman, and this time forced it back into Iranian territorial waters.
Columbia Shipmanagement, the managing company for the tanker, said contact with the vessel was lost at “around 08:22 local time on Friday” when it was “approximately 20 nautical miles off the coast of Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates.”
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center also reported the incident, and said “state activity’ may have forced the tanker to change course.
The U.S. military told Reuters it was “aware of the incident and was actively monitoring the situation.” A U.S. defense official told Bloomberg News the seizure of the Talara was a “violation of international law.”
The Associated Press (AP) reported that a U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton drone “had been circling above the area where the Talara was for hours on Friday observing the seizure.”
Iran has captured ships on a few previous occasions, most recently in April 2024, when IRGC forces used helicopters to board a Portuguese-flagged cargo ship called Aries in the Strait of Hormuz. The crew was released a month later, but Iran still has the ship.
In October, Iranian prosecutors announced they would seek a “fine” of $170 million against the owner of the Ariel, who the Iranians said was “of Israeli origin.” The owner of the ship is a UK company called Zodiac Maritime, one of whose owners is an Israeli shipping magnate named Eyal Ofer.
The regime in Tehran has not made a public statement about the seizure of the Talara as of Friday afternoon.
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