Iranian state TV shows 'smuggled fuel' aboard a seized foreign oil tanker
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The elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has a navy base on Farsi Island which is located north of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards seized a foreign oil tanker in the Gulf which they said was smuggling fuel and detained seven crewmen, Iran's state media reported on Sunday (August 4).
The vessel was intercepted near Iran's Farsi Island in the Gulf on Wednesday (August 1), Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said.
The elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has a navy base on Farsi Island which is located north of the Strait of Hormuz. Its commander Ramezan Zirahi told state TV that the tanker was carrying 700,000 litres of fuel, without elaborating on the nationalities of the detained crewmen and the identity of the ship.
He added that the tanker "was transferred to the Bushehr port, where its fuel was handed over to the authorities."
Iran, which has some of the world's cheapest fuel prices due to heavy state subsidies and the fall of its currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling by land to neighbouring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states.