Iran's IRGC detains oil tanker in Strait of Hormuz VIDEO

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy has seized another oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, located in the Persian Gulf.

IRGC naval forces conducted a targeted operation that led to the interception of a vessel carrying approximately 4 million liters of smuggled fuel, Caliber.Az reports via Mehr.

The tanker, which had a crew of 16 non-Iranian nationals, was reportedly attempting to exit Iran’s territorial waters at the time it was detained.

Brigadier General Abbas Gholamshahi, Commander of the IRGC’s First Naval District in the Persian Gulf, said that IRGC naval forces had detected suspicious activity involving a large fuel tanker. 

He stated that intelligence investigations showed the tanker had received more than 4 million liters of smuggled fuel from smaller vessels and was planning to transfer the cargo to larger ships outside the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has seized multiple foreign‑flagged commercial vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf in recent years, often accusing them of smuggling fuel or carrying unauthorized cargo; such actions have drawn criticism from the United States, which says these seizures violate international law and threaten free navigation in a key global shipping lane.

Tehran’s naval and IRGC forces routinely justify these interdictions as enforcement of domestic fuel‑smuggling laws and judicial orders, reflecting Tehran’s broader efforts to police maritime borders amid economic pressures, but Western military commands have publicly challenged Iran’s legal basis for detentions on the high seas.

By Jeyhun Aghazada