US believes Iranians seized oil tanker off UAE coast
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said early Wednesday that the intruders had left the vessel, which is now safe.
The United States believes a group of Iranians boarded the Panama-flagged Asphalt Princess tanker off the coast of the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, an apparent hijacking that occurred less than a week after Iran was blamed for a deadly drone attack on another ship.
"We can confirm that personnel have left the Panama-flagged Asphalt Princess, this commercial vessel that was seized yesterday. We believe that these personnel were Iranian, but we're not in a position to confirm this at this time,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told a press briefing on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported that a “potential hijack” was underway off the coast of the United Arab Emirates’ Fujairah region. The vessel was reportedly headed to the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway through which nearly a fifth of the world's oil passes.
Oman’s Maritime Security Center said on Wednesday that it had received information about a “hijacking incident” in the Arabian Sea involving the Asphalt Princess and that the Omani navy had deployed several ships to help secure the area.
