Friday , 29 March 2024

IRGC Releases Film Showing Seizure of Greek Ships

Iranwire – The Revolutionary Guards have released a video showing last week’s seizure of two Greek oil tankers in the Persian Gulf in a tit-for-tat move for a tanker taken by Athens last month.

Members of the IRGC descended on the two vessels, Prudent Warrior and Delta Poseidon, on Friday. Footage of the helicopter-launched raid aired on Iranian state TV yesterday and showed armed officers landing on the deck of one of the tankers.

Monitoring organization United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) has said Prudent Warrior was carrying a cargo of Qatari and Iraqi oil, while Delta Poseidon was loaded with Iraqi oil.

The move came in retaliation for Athens’ seizure of a tanker carring some 700,000 barrels of Iranian crude in the Mediterranean Sea last month. The originally Russian-flagged Pegas had changed its flag to Iran in a bid to avoid sanctions before being forced to moor in rough seas off the coast of Greece.

The IRGC’s raid on the two Greek tankers came a day after Athens allowed US authorities to seize the crude oil on Pegas. The Greek Foreign Ministtry has summoned the Iranian ambassador in Athens and castigated the “violent taking-over of Greek-flagged ships”, which it said “effectively amount to acts of piracy”.

0