Iran says it has released crew of seized Israel-linked ship
Portguese-flagged container vessel, commandeered in Strait of Hormuz three weeks ago, remains under ‘judicial detention’
Iran has released the crew of a Portuguese-flagged ship linked to Israel, but remains in control of the vessel itself, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has said.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized the container ship MSC Aries, with a crew of 25, in the Strait of Hormuz on April 13. Iran had said it could close the crucial shipping route.
The ship was commandeered less than two weeks after Tehran vowed to retaliate for a suspected Israeli strike on April 1 on a building in the Iranian embassy compound in the Syrian capital of Damascus. The attack killed several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, including two generals.
“The seized ship, which turned off its radar in Iran’s territorial waters and jeopardized the security of navigation, is under judicial detention,” Amirabdollahian said, according to a foreign ministry post on X late Thursday night.
He said the release of the crew was a humanitarian act and they could return to their countries along with the ship’s captain.
Iran’s foreign ministry had earlier said the Aries was seized for “violating maritime laws” and that there was no doubt it was linked to Israel.
MSC leases the Aries from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, which is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.
Recent attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, claiming solidarity with Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war, have affected global shipping.
The Times of Israel Community.