US confirms seizure of oil shipments from Iran in April – International

The United States confirmed this Friday (8) that it seized the cargo of an Iranian oil tanker in April, shortly before Iran seized two vessels in the Gulf region, in the first official statement by the Justice Department on the incident. .

The department said it seized the Greek-managed oil tanker “Suez Rajan” and its cargo containing 980,000 barrels of oil allegedly sold to China by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Those sales allegedly violated U.S. and international sanctions against Iran, and the U.S. government obtained a court order earlier this year to seize them.

On April 19, around the time of the seizure, the ship’s owner, Suez Rajan Ltd., pleaded guilty to violating sanctions and was fined $2.5 million (Rs 12.5 million).

At the time, US officials did not confirm that they had taken possession of the cargo and that the ship was heading to the US.

But Iran seized two Marshall Islands-flagged “Advantage Sweet” tankers en route to the U.S. in the Gulf of Om and then the Greek-owned “Neovi” en route from Dubai to Fujairah – within days. Later on.

In early July, the US military announced that it had foiled two more attempts by the Iranian Navy to seize commercial oil tankers in international waters in the Gulf of Om.

The Justice Department said those involved in the “Suez Rajan” scheme tried to “conceal the origin of the oil through ship-to-ship transfers” and concealed the locations and identities of the vessels involved.

They also claimed that the vessel’s lessee used the US financial system to facilitate the transport of Iranian oil, in violation of sanctions against Iran.

The United States moved to seize billions of dollars worth of merchandise that would later be sold.