2024-01-11T10:32:29+00:00
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/ An oil tanker was hijacked in the Gulf of Oman, during the early hours of Thursday morning, according to a statement by the British Maritime Trade Operations Authority.
The British Army Authority said, in a report seen by Agency, that it had received a report about an accident 50 nautical miles east of the coast of the Sultanate of Oman.
British Maritime Trade Operations said: “We have received a report about people boarding an oil tanker off the coast of Oman, and we are unable to contact it,” the Associated Press reported.
While Reuters quoted a memorandum issued by “Embry” as saying that an oil tanker flying the flag of the Marshall Islands was boarded by 4-5 armed people about 50 miles east of Sohar in the Sultanate of Oman.
The memorandum added that the suspected militants were wearing black uniforms resembling military uniforms and black masks.
According to Embry’s memo, the tanker was previously accused of carrying sanctioned Iranian oil, and was seized and fined by the United States.
Details of the kidnapping
According to a statement by the British Maritime Trade Operations Authority, men in military uniform boarded the oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman in a confiscation operation as part of the escalation of the crisis between Iran and the United States.
Details of the hijacking are not yet clear, in what appears to be the latest ship seizure in the Middle East’s tense waterways.
The ship, formerly known as the Swiss Rajan, was involved in a year-long dispute that ultimately led to the US Department of Justice seizing one million barrels of Iranian oil on board.
Britain’s Maritime Trade Operations, which provides warnings to sailors in the Middle East, said the incident began early in the morning in the waters between Oman and Iran in an area transited by ships coming in and out of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of global oil trade passes.
The British Army-run group reported receiving a report from the ship’s security director about hearing “unidentified voices on the phone” along with the ship’s captain.
The private intelligence company Embry said that 6 military men boarded the ship, which it identified as the oil tanker “Saint Nicholas,” explaining that the men covered surveillance cameras during their boarding.
The ship’s name was recently changed to St. Nicholas, after it was previously known as the Swiss Rajan, associated with the Greek shipping company Empire Navigation.
Attention began to focus on the “Suez Rajan” oil tanker in February 2022, when the “United Against Nuclear Iran” group said it suspected the tanker was carrying oil from Iran’s Kharg Island, as it monitored satellite images and shipping data that were analyzed at that time for oil. Iranian.
For several months, the ship remained in the South China Sea off the northeastern coast of Singapore, before suddenly sailing to the Texas coast without explanation. The tanker unloaded its cargo to another tanker in August, and released its oil in Houston as part of a Justice Department order.
In September 2023, the Greek shipping company admitted its involvement in smuggling sanctioned Iranian oil and agreed to pay a fine of $2.4 million in a case related to the tanker.
Attacks on ships
The British Authority indicated that it cannot conduct communications with the oil tanker at the present time, explaining that the Omani authorities are investigating the incident, advising ships to be cautious and to report any suspicious activity.
No further details were immediately provided, nor was any announcement made in this regard by the Omani authorities.
It is noteworthy that no attacks have been reported off the coast of Oman since the start of the Gaza war on October 7.
The incident occurred a few hours after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling on the Houthi group in Yemen to immediately stop attacks on ships.
The Security Council resolution strongly condemned the Houthi attacks on commercial ships, which occurred starting on November 19, 2023, when the Yemeni group detained the “Galaxy Leader” ship and its crew.
The Security Council called on the group to immediately stop all similar attacks that hinder global trade, harm navigational rights and freedoms, and threaten regional peace and security, and to release the Galaxy Leader ship and its crew.
During the past weeks, the Houthis launched more than 25 operations targeting commercial ships they suspected of being linked to Israel, or heading to Israeli ports, near the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.
Attacks on oil tankers
Since the collapse of the Iran nuclear deal, the waters surrounding the strait have seen a series of ship seizures by Iran, as well as attacks targeting ships, which the Navy has blamed on Tehran.
Iran and the navy have also faced a series of tense standoffs in the waterway, although recent attention has focused on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are attacking ships in the Red Sea, amid Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The United States and its allies have also seized Iranian oil shipments since 2019, and this has led to a series of attacks in the Middle East attributed to Iran, as well as the seizure of ships by Iranian military and paramilitary forces, threatening global shipping.