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Iran's Revolutionary Guard seized two foreign oil tankers in the Persian Gulf this Thursday on charges of fuel smuggling, according to Iranian state television. The vessels were carrying approximately one million liters of fuel, including diesel, equivalent to about 6,300 barrels. The 15 foreign crew members on board were taken into custody by the Iranian judicial authorities, although Tehran did not reveal the nationality of those arrested or the flags under which the ships were sailing.
General Heidar Honarian Mojarrad, regional commander of the Revolutionary Guard's navy, declared that the tankers were intercepted near Farsi Island and transferred to the port of Bushehr. According to Iranian official media, both vessels were part of a network that had been operating in the region for months with the aim of illegally transporting fuel out of Iran. The seizure occurs at a time of high tension between Iran and the United States. Both countries will hold nuclear talks this Friday in Muscat, the capital of Oman, after Israel launched a 12-day war against Iranian territory in June and the Islamic Republic carried out a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests. The meeting will be headed by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in an indirect negotiation format focused on the nuclear program and the lifting of sanctionsWe recommend reading:Trump says Iranian supreme leader "should be very concerned"
Fuel smuggling represents a structural problem for Iran. The country maintains one of the lowest gasoline prices in the world due to strong state subsidies, with the first 60 liters available at just 1.25 cents per dollar per liter. This policy, a legacy of the violent protests of November 2019 that were brutally repressed, encourages a lucrative illegal business towards neighboring countries such as Iraq, Turkey and Pakistan, where prices are significantly higher. It is estimated that around 20% of the fuel sold at Iranian stations ends up being smuggled. The Iranian state thus loses billions of dollars with subsidies that end up financing clandestine networks.
This is not the first operation of this type in recent months. In December, Iran seized a foreign oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz with 16 crew members on board. That same month, it intercepted another vessel in the Sea of Oman carrying six million liters of diesel, crewed by 18 people of Indian, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi nationalities. In November, the Revolutionary Guard confiscated the Talara oil tanker, flying the flag of the Marshall Islands, which was carrying 30,000 tons of petrochemical products from the United Arab Emirates to Singapore.
Iranian forces regularly seize vessels in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime passage barely 33 kilometers wide through which approximately 20% of the oil and liquefied natural gas consumed worldwide passes. Tehran argues that these operations seek to combat the illicit trafficking of fuel and ensure compliance with maritime regulations, although Western analysts point out that some seizures may respond to regional political pressures. You can also read: The operation comes days after the United States deployed a naval group in the Persian Gulf region in response to the repression of protests in Iran. The West has blamed Tehran for attacks with limpet mines that damaged oil tankers in 2019 and for a drone attack on an Israeli-linked ship that killed two European crew members in 2021. Those incidents began after President Donald Trump, in his first term, unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers.
