Iran intercepts foreign tanker off Qeshm island in Persian Gulf

MADRID, December 26 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Iranian authorities announced Friday that they had intercepted a foreign tanker off the island of Qeshm, in the Persian Gulf, with some four million liters of “smuggled fuel” on board.

The head of the judiciary of Hormozgan province, Mojtaba Ghahremani, said there were 16 crew members on board the ship, who were arrested and charged, although he did not give details on the name of the ship or its flag, according to information from the Iranian agency IRNA.

“We emphasize the importance of preventing and combating fuel smuggling,” he said, while highlighting the “courageous action” of members of the Iranian Navy and the Revolutionary Guards.

“The military arrested 16 non-Iranian crew members of the ship and handed them over to the judicial authorities. These individuals are now in detention,” he noted, before adding that “a hard blow has been dealt to the mafias and fuel trafficking networks.”

In this sense, he declared that “the Iranian islands and coasts, in addition to the waters of the Persian Gulf, will never constitute a safe place for this type of traffickers”. “We will continue to fight on land and sea without any mercy, day and night,” he concluded.

Last week, Iranian forces seized another tanker carrying six million liters of crude oil in the Gulf of Oman, a vessel about which they did not provide further information.