Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirm seizing oil tanker sailing off UAE coast

Iran confirmed on Saturday that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had seized a tanker in Gulf waters carrying a cargo of petrochemicals bound for Singapore over alleged violations, Iranian state media reported.

A US official and maritime security sources had said on Friday that Iranian forces intercepted the oil products tanker and diverted it into Iranian territorial waters. It was the first report of Tehran seizing a tanker since Israeli-US strikes on Iran in June.

Iranian state-run television read a statement from the IRGC stating that “the tanker was in violation for carrying unauthorized cargo.”

It did not provide further details of the alleged violations.

The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, the Talara, had been sailing off the United Arab Emirates’ coast, maritime sources said, and was carrying a cargo of high-sulphur gasoil through the Indian Ocean en route to Singapore from Sharjah in the UAE.

Reports from Friday indicated that the tanker was transiting through the narrow Strait of Hormuz when it suddenly changed course into Iranian territorial waters, with the British military warning that a possible “state activity” had affected it.

The vessel’s manager, Columbia Shipmanagement, said it lost contact with the Talara Friday morning around 20 nautical miles off the coast of Khor Fakkan, UAE. It added that it was working closely with relevant parties, including maritime security agencies and the vessel’s owner, to restore contact.

The ship is owned by Cyprus-based Pasha Finance.

In a statement, the US military said it was aware of the incident and was actively monitoring the situation.

Iran’s IRGC has periodically seized commercial vessels in Gulf waters in recent years, often citing maritime violations such as alleged smuggling, technical infractions or legal disputes.

However, the US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the incident was surprising since Iran had not carried out any such operations in recent months.

Iran has curbed its military activities in the region since the 12-day Israeli bombing campaign in June, which was joined by the US. Its last reported seizure of a vessel was in April 2024.

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.

Those attacks began after US President Donald Trump, in his first term in office, unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

In May 2022, Iran took two Greek tankers and held them until November of that year. Iran 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 narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20 percent of all oil traded passes. The US Navy has long patrolled the Middle East through its Bahrain-based 5th Fleet to keep the waterways open.