Greek oil tanker seized by Iranian Navy in Gulf of Oman

Iranian armed soldiers seized a Greek oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday morning, heightening fears that the Islamic Republic could escalate attacks against shipping vessels in Middle Eastern waterways.

The Iranian Navy acted on a judicial order and captured an “American oil tanker” carrying Iraqi oil bound for a refinery firm in Turkey, according to Iran's Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The ship, once known as the Suez Rajan and renamed 'the St. Nikolas,' is owned by Empire Navigation, an Athens-based commercial and management oil tanking company that was previously part of a sanctions dispute between Tehran and Washington.

The seizure of the Greek oil tanker comes just one day after Houthi rebels from Yemen launched their largest drone attack on international shipping vessels in the Red Sea, designed to deter the U.S. and its allies from any retaliation against the Houthis, according to analysts.

Empire Navigation said it lost contact with the vessel while it was sailing off the coast of Oman. The ship carried a crew of 19 Filipinos and one Greek national along with a cargo of 145,000 metric tons of crude oil belonging to a Turkish oil group.

UK Maritime Trade Operations said four to five unauthorized men wearing black masks boarded the ship on Thursday, just before the vessel abruptly turned from its southeastern route along the Strait of Hormuz to head north for Iran.

The St. Nikolas was seized by the U.S. Department of Justice last year for violating sanctions and attempting to smuggle Iranian oil to China. The move ignited a retaliatory seizure by Iran of a tanker carrying Kuwaiti oil for the U.S. company Chevron. Iran warned the U.S. that the act would not “go unanswered.”

The Iranian capture of the St. Nikolas on Thursday coincides with ongoing attacks by Houthi rebels on shipping vessels in the Red Sea since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October.

On Wednesday, the UN Security Council issued a resolution demanding an end to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and calling for the release of the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated vessel linked to an Israeli businessman that the Yemen-based terror group seized in November.