TEHRAN —
Iranian naval forces have seized a foreign-registered ship they said was
smuggling fuel in the Gulf and arrested its crew, state media reported on
Saturday.
اضافة اعلان
“A foreign vessel
carrying 757,000 liters of smuggled fuel has been seized,” the state
broadcaster’s website quoted a commander of the Revolutionary Guards maritime
forces as saying.
“The seven crew
members, who are foreign nationals, have been arrested and handed over to
judicial authorities,” General Ramazan Zirahi added, without specifying their
nationalities.
It is not known
when the vessel was seized, or what flag it sailed under.
“The vessel,
that intended to transport and deliver its cargo of fuel to other countries,
was seized 60 miles off the coast of Iran,” Zirahi said, but did not say
whether the cargo originated in the Islamic republic.
Iran has one of
the cheapest petrol prices worldwide, which could make smuggling to other
countries a lucrative business.
Zirahi noted
that the ship was carrying “gasoline”, and said the fight against smuggling,
“especially organized fuel smuggling, is one of the priorities of the IRGC’s
naval forces to support national production and the dynamism of the economy”.
In recent months Iran
has announced several operations targeting fuel smuggling in the Gulf, where a
large amount of the world’s oil is produced and shipped.
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