Iran confiscates crude oil of U.S.-bound oil tanker

TEHRAN, March 6 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian court has ordered to confiscate the crude oil worth 50 million U.S. dollars aboard an oil tanker that Iran seized in the Sea of Oman last year, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Wednesday.

The unloading of the U.S. cargo is said to be a retaliatory measure against U.S. sanctions, which prevented the sale of critical medicine for Iranian victims of a rare skin disease.

The U.S.-bound Marshall Island-flagged oil tanker, named Advantage Sweet, was seized by Iranian naval forces in April last year south of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran said the seizure was made after the tanker had collided with an Iranian fishing craft, which resulted in the injury and missing of a number of the Iranian crew members, and had attempted to flee the scene in serious breach of international laws and regulations.

The United States, in August 2023, unloaded a cargo of Iranian oil off the coast of Texas from a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, named Suez Rajan, which it had seized earlier.

The same tanker, although under the new name of St Nikolas, was seized by Iran's navy in the Sea of Oman in January this year following a judicial order, with the country's authorities citing the reason as retaliation for the U.S. "stealing" of Iran's oil in April 2023.