TEHRAN – Iran has summoned a Swiss diplomat over the apparent U.S. seizure of Iranian crude oil from a boat that sat for months off Texas, an reliable stated Monday, because the oil now seemed to be moored in Houston.
The remarks by means of Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani mark the newest twist in the saga of the oil as soon as aboard the tanker Suez Rajan, which had turn into mired in the broader tensions between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic. That’s at the same time as Tehran and Washington paintings towards a trade of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets in South Korea for the discharge of 5 Iranian-Americans held in Tehran.
Iran has been looking to evade sanctions and proceed promoting its oil in a foreign country, whilst the U.S. and its allies had been seizing cargoes since 2019 after the rustic’s nuclear deal permitting the industry collapsed.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Kanaani stated Tehran had summoned the chargé d’affaires of the Swiss Embassy in Iran to specific a “strong objection” over the usseizing the oil. Switzerland has regarded out for America’s pursuits in Iran because the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage disaster.
Kanaani’s feedback additionally stated the oil was once Iranian.
“The matter of the seizure of an Iranian oil consignment by means of the U.S. … is a fully unproductive motion,” Kanaani said. He said the U.S. government was on the one hand expressing interest in direct talks to pave the way for a renewed nuclear deal and on the other was imposing new sanctions and seizing oil.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The saga over the Suez Rajan started in February 2022, when the crowd United Against Nuclear Iran stated it suspected the tanker carried oil from Iran’s Khargh Island, its major oil distribution terminal in the Persian Gulf.
For months, the ship sat in the South China Sea off the northeast coast of Singapore before suddenly sailing for the Gulf of Mexico without explanation. Analysts believe the vessel’s cargo likely has been seized by American officials, though there still were no public court documents Monday involving the oil.
On Aug. 20, the Suez Rajan began transferring its oil to the tanker MR Euphrates, ship-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed. On Monday, data showed the MR Euphrates moored in Houston at a major oil terminal, likely preparing to discharge the crude it carried from the Suez Rajan.
The Los Angeles-based private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management had owned the Suez Rajan until late May, when it was taken over the Greek-based firm Empire Navigation. The MR Euphrates also is owned by Empire, which did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
Since the Suez Rajan headed for America, Iran has seized two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, including one with cargo for U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. In July, the top commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s naval arm threatened further action against anyone offloading the Suez Rajan, with state media linking the recent seizures to the cargo’s fate.
Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers saw it regain the ability to sell oil openly on the international market. But in 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord and re-imposed American sanctions. That slammed the door on much of Iran’s lucrative crude oil trade, a major engine for its economy and its government. It also began a cat-and-mouse hunt for Iranian oil cargo — as well as series of escalating attacks attributed to Iran since 2019.
The delay in offloading the Suez Rajan’s cargo had become a political issue as well for the Biden administration as the ship had sat for months in the Gulf of Mexico, possibly due to companies being worried about the threat from Iran.
The U.S. Navy has larger its presence frequently in fresh weeks in the Mideast, sending the troop-and-aircraft-carrying USS Bataan in the course of the Strait of Hormuz and bearing in mind putting armed personnel on commercial ships traveling through the strait to forestall Iran from seizing further ships.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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