June 17, 2022
The Islamic Republic has seized yet another pair of tankers sailing in the Persian Gulf, saying it was retaliating for Greece having the insolence of turning a cargo of Iranian over to the United States.
Iran said the whole incident was an American plot, with Greece just a puppet carrying out American orders. But the retaliation it ordered was against Greece, not the United States.
Greece earlier seized a tanker that it said was Russian and was seized in compliance with EU sanctions on Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. However, Greece then learned that the cargo in the Russian-owned tanker was Iranian-owned crude and it let the United States take possession of that crude.
The oil seizure—not the tanker seizure—was taken to a Greek court, where a lower tribunal said the seizure was lawful but a regional appeals court said June 9 it was illegal. It remains to be seen if that ruling will be appealed to the Greek Supreme Court.
The Russians quickly sold the tanker to Iran. Once it ownership was no longer Russian, the Greeks no longer had any reason to hold it. Iran announced June 14 that Greece had released both the tanker and its cargo to Iran “thanks to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s decisive and prompt actions.” But a) the ship was released because it was no longer Russian-owned and b) earlier news reports said the Americans had already removed the oil cargo.
Greece has not yet announced anything about the fate of the ship or its cargo.
Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said, “The change in Greece’s behavior … proves that the sole way to defend the country’s rights in the face of bullying … is retaliatory measures.”
The incident started April 19 when the tanker Pegas, owned by a Russian company and flying the Russian flag, anchored off the southern tip of the Greek island of Euboea. The Greek government then announced it was seizing the ship in compliance with the EU sanctions on Russia.
There is some confusion about the ship. Some news reports say the ship’s name has been changed to Lana and that it now flies the Iranian flag. The nautical website Vesselfinder currently lists the name as Lana and states twice that it is Russian-flagged and once that it is Iranian-flagged. The Islamic Republic did not make a big issue out of the ship, just the cargo.
Some days after the Pegas seizure, it was determined that the oil cargo on the tanker was not Russian-owned, as originally assumed, but was actually Iranian oil. This suggested that Russia was helping Iran evade US sanctions by transporting Iranian oil.
Separate from that issue, the US approached Greece and asked to take possession of the oil under a US court ruling, with the oil to be sold by the United States and the proceeds turned over to “victims of terrorism” who have won court suits in the United States and been awarded vast sums.
Greece ordered the oil offloaded from the Pegas.
The Islamic Republic swiftly went into overdrive, calling the oil seizure “an act of piracy” and publicly threatening retaliation. The retaliation came within a few days when the Pasdaran dramatically dropped armed troops from a helicopter May 27 on two tankers in the Persian Gulf that are owned by Greece and flew the Greek flag. Those tankers, Prudent Warrior and Delta Poseidon, were quickly moved into Iranian waters.
The Islamic Republic said the two ships were seized for “violations,” which it did not explain. But days later, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi said instead that the ships were seized in retaliation for Greece assenting to the US seizure of the crude cargo.
In his speech marking the death anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Khamenehi said, “They stole Iranian oil off the Greek coast. Then our brave men who don’t fear death [the Pasdaran] responded and seized the enemy’s oil tanker. But they use their media empire and extensive propaganda to accuse Iran of piracy. Who is the pirate? You stole our oil. We took it back from you. Recovering stolen property is not stealing.” The United States did not accuse Iran of piracy; it was the Greek Foreign Ministry that used that term.
Tehran also decided to pick a fight with France and Germany, which had issued a joint appeal asking Iran to free the two Greek tankers. The Germans and French did not use any harsh language, but Iran complained that the two used political and media pressure instead of resolving an issue through judicial channels—a strange argument to make a week after Khamenehi had defended retaliation as the proper tactic for Iran.
The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the state-owned news agency, later wrote in a commentary, “The seizure of the Greek tankers is a big blow to American hegemony and bullying policies, warning states such as Greece that Washington, despite its claims, cannot support its followers in the world.”
The two tanker seizures by Iran were the fifth and sixth tankers Iran has seized in recent years for political reasons. Tanker seizures have been a part of Iran’s quiver since 2019, when Iran seized the British-flagged Stena Impero after the British colony of Gibraltar detained an Iranian tanker in its waters. Iran freed the Stena Impero months later after Gibraltar freed the Iranian vessel.
Last year, Iran seized a South Korean tanker and held it for months in an effort to pressure South Korea to unfreeze Iranian assets in Korea. That strong-arm tactic did not work and eventually the South Korean tanker was freed.
Also last year, Iran briefly detained a Panamanian-flagged asphalt tanker off the UAE and a Vietnamese tanker.
The United States separately has seized Iranian oil from about five non-Iranian tankers at sea and sold the oil to benefit the “victims of terrorism.” The most recent such seizure was in late May as the US was preparing to remove the crude from the Pegas, according the Reuters news agency. But Iran has for some reason not made an issue of that seizure.
