United States warships in the Persian Gulf intercepted an oil tanker, leased by the Iranian National Oil Company (NIOC) for the third time in the past three months, press reports stated on Tuesday.
US forces boarded the vessel, named “Sandy”, and intercepted it Sunday for seven hours, besides interrogating its Indian nationality crewmembers, the Persian daily Toss'e cited an informed source as saying.
The ship was carrying feedstock for the production of lead-free petrol in the southern port of Abadan, the source claimed and denounced the behavior of US marines "as contravening all international conventions on navigation laws", the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
Hours later, the vessel was released and headed for the Abadan port, Toss'e added.
According to the daily, US warships last week intercepted two Iranian vessels inside the country's waters in northern Persian Gulf and released them after five hours.
In December late last year, the Islamic Republic of Iran lodged a formal notice with the Swiss embassy, which looks after American interests in Iran, asking for a "convincing explanation" from the US over the interception of an Iranian oil tanker in the Persian Gulf.
The notice denounced the US Navy's interception of the Iranian ship as "contrary to international conventions" and demanded the American government to "take measures at the earliest over the compensation of the incurred damage."
Tehran and Washington have held no diplomatic relations after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when the Students Following the Line of Imam captured the American embassy, known as the 'den of spies', in Tehran. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
