Iran releases Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, gives no reason for detention

Cyprus-based Columbia Shipmanagement says crew of Talara ‘in good spirits,’ vessel is free to resume operations after five days in Iranian custody

By Jon Gambrell 19 November 2025, 12:49 pm

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Illustrative: An Iranian Revolutionary Guard speedboat moves in the Persian Gulf while an oil tanker is seen in background, July 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran on Wednesday released a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker with all its 21 crew members aboard days after Tehran seized the ship without explanation, the vessel’s managers said.

Tehran had no immediate comment on the release of the Talara, which marked the first ship seizure by Iran in months. The Middle East remains tense after Iran’s 12-day war in June with Israel and as concerns remain over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

Cyprus-based Columbia Shipmanagement said the crew “are safe and in good spirits.”

“We have informed their families, and the vessel is now free to resume normal operations,” the firm said.

It added that “no allegations were made against the vessel, her crew and the vessel’s managers and owners.”

Ship-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed the Talara traveling away from Iran.

On Friday, Iran’s military seized the vessel as it traveled through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil traded passes. The ship had been traveling from Ajman, United Arab Emirates, onward to Singapore.

The US Navy has blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a fatal drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew members in 2021.

Illustrative: Tugboats are moored next to the Israeli-linked tanker MT Mercer Street, off the Fujairah port in the United Arab Emirates, on August 3, 2021. (Karim Sahib/AFP)

In May 2022, Iran took two Greek tankers and held them until November of that year, and seized the Portuguese-flagged and Israel-affiliated cargo ship MSC Aries in April 2024.

Those attacks found themselves subsumed by the Iranian-backed Houthis’ assaults targeting ships during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which drastically reduced shipping in the crucial Red Sea corridor.

Iran long has threatened to close off the Strait of Hormuz. The US Navy has long patrolled the Middle East through its Bahrain-based 5th Fleet to keep the waterway open.