The Philippines says Iran has freed all 18 Filipino crew members of an oil tanker that was seized in the Gulf of Oman in January.
Iran’s navy had boarded the Greek-owned St. Nikolas, which was carrying 19 crew, off the coast of Oman. The only Greek crew member was released the following week.
Tehran began freeing the Filipino crew in batches at the end of January after a replacement crew was hired from Russia and other countries, Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega tells AFP.
“They were not hostages… but they were not allowed to leave without replacements,” de Vega says of the Filipino crew.
The last of the Filipino crew returned to Manila last week, he adds.
The Marshall Islands-flagged ship was carrying 145,000 tons of oil from Iraq and heading to Turkey when it was seized. It has been anchored in the vicinity of the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.
Iran’s state media has said the seizure was in retaliation to the “theft” of Iranian oil by the United States from the same tanker, at the time named the Suez Rajan.
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