Fuel-smuggling ship seized in Persian Gulf waters
Iran has seized a foreign vessel carrying smuggled fuel in the Persian Gulf as part of a broader crackdown on the illegal yet lucrative trade of subsidized Iranian fuel in the region.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said in a Wednesday statement that its naval forces had confiscated an Eswatini-flagged vessel transporting 0.35 million liters of smuggled diesel.
General Heidar Honarian, commander of the IRGC Navy’s Second Zone, said the seizure was carried out under a judicial order, adding that the vessel’s cargo was being unloaded at the southwestern port of Bushehr.
Honarian added that 13 crew members—nationals of India and a neighboring country—were arrested during the operation.
Iran has stepped up efforts to curb the smuggling of Iranian-made oil products in the Persian Gulf. These products, mainly motor fuels, are illegally shipped to Arab states in the region, where fuel prices can be more than 20 times higher than those inside Iran.
The IRGC announced in mid-November that it had seized a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker outside Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf for carrying unauthorized cargo.
Subsequent reports indicated that the tanker had been transporting some 30,000 metric tons of Iranian-owned petrochemical materials.
Iranian authorities released the tanker four days later after offloading its cargo.
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