The ship sailed from the United Arab Emirates with Singapore as its final port of call. On Friday, the ship suddenly changed course towards Iranian territorial waters. Two independent maritime security companies signaled that Iran had seized the ship. Something that was confirmed on Saturday by Iran:
“The Revolutionary Guards’ naval forces followed its movements, intercepted it and seized it,” it said in a statement, referring to “judicial authorities” that ordered the ship’s cargo to be seized.
According to security company Neptune P2P, this is the first time since April 2024, when the merchant ship MSC Aries was seized, that Iran has carried out this type of action.
At that time, Iran claimed that Aries had connections to Israel and that this was the reason for the operation.
Iran has repeatedly warned of retaliation after the twelve-day war with Israel in June, in which the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities.
No explicit link to Israel has been made this time. However, tensions between Iran and the West remain high and control of the Strait of Hormuz is a sensitive issue. Around a fifth of the world's oil traffic passes through the narrow waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.
