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Tankers on the Strait of Ormuz, 21 December 2018 (photo illustration). REUTERS / Hamad I Mohammed

The Revolutionary Guards announced that they seized a vessel carrying 700,000 liters of contraband fuel in the Persian Gulf region. This is a new show of force from Iran in full tension with the United States.

With our correspondent in Tehran, Siavosh Ghazi

The vessel was boarded near the island of Farsi in the northern Persian Gulf, halfway between Iran and Saudi Arabia. According to the communiqué of the Revolutionary Guards, it was carrying 700,000 liters of smuggled fuel to an Arab country in the Gulf. It was directed to the port of Bouchehr. The 7 crew members, all foreigners, were arrested, but the nationality of the ship was not specified.

Control of the Persian Gulf

This arrest comes after the seizure of a British tanker in mid-July by the Navy Revolutionary Guards. The arrest of the British tanker came two weeks after the seizure of an Iranian tanker by the British navy in Gibraltar. Iran has proposed a kind of exchange between the two tankers that London has refused.

With the seizure of this new ship, Iran wants to show that it has control of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, which is a strategic passage for the world's oil. This boarding comes as tension has steadily increased between Iran, the United States and Britain in the Persian Gulf region.

► See also : Securing the Straits of Hormuz: An Impossible Mission?