The Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced today, Monday, that it had stopped a tanker in the Gulf waters, on charges of smuggling fuel from Iran, and revealed that he had arrested the ship's 16-person crew of Malaysian nationality.
The commander of the Fifth Zone of the Naval Forces of the Revolutionary Guards, Brigadier Ali Azmayi, said that his forces stopped a ship carrying smuggled fuel near Abu Musa in the Gulf, adding that it was smuggling one million and 312 thousand liters of fuel.
Azmayi explained that the ship's 16 people with Malaysian nationality were arrested.
The leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards added that this is the sixth ship that the Revolutionary Guards has stopped due to the smuggling of fuel from Iran.
Tensions rose in the region on July 19, after Iran announced the detention of a British tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, on the pretext of violating traffic regulations, hours after a court in Gibraltar announced the extension of the detention of an Iranian oil tanker for thirty days.
Washington and Saudi Arabia accuse Iran of targeting Gulf ships and oil installations and the threat of maritime navigation, which Iran has consistently denied, and Tehran has offered to sign a "non-aggression" agreement with the Gulf states to prove their innocence.