Iraq‘s oil ministry has said it has no connection with an oil tanker seized by Iran in the Gulf for allegedly smuggling fuel, Iraqi News Agency reported.
“The ministry does not export diesel to the international market,” the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Iran had earlier said the tanker, sized by its Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was an Iraqi vessel, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Earlier on Sunday, Iranian state TV and the semi-official Fars news agency reported that seven crew members were detained when the vessel was captured on Wednesday evening.
“The IRGC’s naval forces have seized a foreign oil tanker in the Persian Gulf that was smuggling fuel for some Arab countries,” Iranian TV quoted IRGC commander Ramezan Zirahi as saying.
“It carried 700,000 litres of fuel. Seven sailors onboard of the tanker, who are from different nationalities, were detained.”
Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig, reporting from Iran’s capital, Tehran, said the detained crew members were taken to the southern port city of Bushehr.
“The Revolutionary Guards say that they carried out this operation once they had acquired the appropriate permits from the judiciary.”
The US Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, said it did not have information to confirm the reports. Maritime tracking experts also said they did not have any immediate information about the incident or the vessel.
Rising tensions
Iran is still holding a British-flagged tanker it captured in the Strait of Hormuz for alleged marine violations.
The seizure of the Stena Impero came some two weeks after British forces captured an Iranian oil tanker near Gibraltar, accused of breaching European Union sanctions on Syria. Iran denies the ship was bound for the war-torn country.
Tensions have soared in recent months around the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil shipping waterway that lies between Iran and Oman.
The friction is rooted in US President Donald Trump’s decision in May last year to unilaterally withdraw Washington from a landmark nuclear deal signed in 2015 between world powers and Iran, and reimpose sweeping sanctions on the country.
The US has boosted its military presence in the region, blaming Iran for multiple suspected attacks on tankers in the Gulf, which Tehran denies.
The standoff has prompted a discussion between the US, Britain and other nations on the possibility of creating an international mission to safeguard shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Bahrain is spearheading the effort to counter “Iran’s repeated aggression” against shipping in the Gulf and the strategic waterway.
Germany, one of the signatories to the 2015 deal, wishes to distance itself from Trump’s campaign against Iran, which is why it is unlikely Germany will participate in the mission.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
