Iran’s supreme leader has confirmed that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) seized two Greek oil tankers as retaliatory measures against the US confiscation of the Iranian crude aboard a tanker detained off Greece.
More specifically, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated that “some time ago, the Greek government stole some of our country’s oil due to an order from the Americans.”
He also added that:
But when the self-sacrificing, valiant soldiers of the Islamic Republic confiscated the enemy’s ship carrying oil, they accused Iran of theft through their extensive propaganda machines. But it was them who had stolen our oil. Taking back something that had been stolen is not an act of theft
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The Delta Poseidon and Prudent Warrior were seized by the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the Persian Gulf last week, with the Greek Merchant Marine Minister Ioannis Plakiotakis describing the incident as a threat to the security of shipping and commerce.
The move came just days after Athens announced that it would hand over a reported 700,000 barrels of Iranian crude from a Russian-flagged tanker it impounded in April over to the US.
The Russian vessel was seized due to global sanctions linked to Russia’s war with Ukraine. US and EU sanctions also bar countries from buying Iranian petrochemical products.
Not good what iran did, is an attack directly to freedom of navigation. If the owner of the oil want to be compensated must talk to the russian owner of the ship, because European Sanctions against Russia for Ucrania invasion are in force or Iran support the invasion of a free democratic country. I am sure international law has a case here, showing how there are still countries in the world that target innocents when they are doing bussiness with the devil.