Iran seizes foreign oil tanker and crew

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard this week seized a foreign tanker and 12 crew members accused of smuggling oil, Iranian state TV said Thursday. The vessel appears to be the United Arab Emirates–based, Panamanian-flagged MT Riah oil tanker, which went off radar on Sunday night near Qeshm Island, where the Revolutionary Guard runs a base. State TV said the forces intercepted the vessel south of Iran’s Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz and later found it was transporting 1 million liters of fuel from Iranian smugglers to foreign customers.

Tensions have been on the rise between Iran and the United States since President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers last year and reimposed sanctions on Iran. Last week, Iran exceeded the 2015 nuclear deal’s limits on the size of its low-enriched uranium stockpile and its uranium enrichment level. The country set a September deadline for world powers to offer a new deal.