BICOM

An oil tanker from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) went missing three days ago whilst travelling through the Strait of Hormuz, raising concerns that Iran has seized the vessel.

According to tracking data, the Riah, flying the flag of Panama, drifted off into Iranian waters and stopped transmitting its location near the island of Qeshm, which has an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) base on it. According to AP, the Riah typically made trips through the Strait of Hormuz from Dubai and Sharjah on the UAE’s west coast to Fujairah on the UAE’s east coast.

Capt. Ranjith Raja of the data firm Refinitiv said that the tanker hadn’t switched off its tracking in three months of trips around the UAE. “That is a red flag,” Raja said.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, said yesterday that its navy was assisting a “foreign tanker that had encountered a technical problem” in the Gulf after receiving a distress call. “According to international regulations … Iranian forces approached it and using a tugboat brought it into Iranian waters for necessary repairs,” Mousavi added.

A US official has questioned the Iranian statement, saying: “Could it have broken down or been towed for assistance? That’s a possibility. But the longer there is a period of no contact, it’s going to be a concern.”

Earlier this month Royal Marines seized an Iranian super-tanker of the coast of Gibraltar. The vessel was carrying 2.1 million barrels of light crude oil believed to be heading to Syria in defiance of EU sanctions. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Saturday that Britain will release the ship if Iran can provide guarantees it will not breach EU sanctions and sell the oil to Syria.

Yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the seizure of the super-tanker “piracy,” adding: “God willing, the Islamic Republic and its committed forces will not leave this evil without a response.”

According to Lucy Fisher in the Times, the Royal Navy will send a third warship and a tanker to the Gulf. The type 23 frigate HMS Kent will be deployed in September and RFA Wave Knight will arrive in August. A senior defence source told the Times that both deployments had been long-planned as part of Operation Kipion, the UK’s maritime presence in the Gulf and Indian Ocean, and insisted they were not related to Iran’s aggressive behaviour near the Strait of Hormuz.