Iran says crew members of Israel-linked ship seized by IRGC are expected to be freed

Iran’s foreign minister says the crew of a seized Portuguese-flagged ship linked to Israel have been granted consular access and are expected to be freed, Iranian media reports.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized the container vessel MSC Aries with a crew of 25 in the Strait of Hormuz on April 13, days after Tehran vowed to retaliate for an alleged Israeli strike on what it says was its consulate in Damascus. Iran had said it could close the crucial shipping route and days later fired an unprecedented barrage of ballistic missiles and drones at Israel.

Recent attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, claiming solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas, have affected global shipping.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian tells his Portuguese counterpart Paulo Rangel in a telephone call that the “humanitarian issue of the release of the ship’s crew is of serious concern to us,” Iranian media says.

He is quoted as saying the crew will be turned over to their ambassadors in Tehran. The reports do not say when this will occur.

Iran’s foreign ministry has 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.