The Iranian navy announced today, Thursday, January 11, 2024, that it seized an oil tanker in the Sea of Oman based on a judicial order according to official media.

The official news agency "Irna" reported that the naval forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army stopped an American oil tanker near the Strait of Hormuz between Oman and Iran under a judicial order.

Earlier this morning, two British maritime security agencies reported that armed men boarded a ship in the Gulf of Oman near Iran, then contact with it was lost.

The Greek company "Empire Navigation" said that the oil tanker belongs to it.

Sources in the maritime shipping sector in Britain indicated that the oil tanker was the subject of a dispute last year between the United States and Iran.

The United States seized the (Saint Nicholas) in 2023 in a sanctions enforcement operation, but the ship was sailing under a different name, which is (Suez Rajan).

The United States also said at the time that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was attempting to send smuggled oil to China in violation of US sanctions.

Today, Thursday, the Greek-based company "Empire Navigation" said it lost contact with the ship it operates as it sailed near Omani Sohar, with 19 crew members onboard, one from Greece and 18 from the Philippines.

The company pointed out that the tanker carries a cargo of 145,000 metric tons of oil from Basra in Iraq, and its destination was the port of Ali Agha in western Turkey via the Suez Canal.