Bush administration, said that a Greek company that managed the vessel ultimately brought another of its ships to Texas to complete the offloading. The organization’s chief executive, Mark Wallace, a former ambassador in the George W. and foreign government security officials, first brought attention to the likelihood that the Suez Rajan was carrying illicit oil in February 2022, citing satellite imagery. United Against Nuclear Iran, a nonprofit organization that includes many former U.S. The standstill prompted a bipartisan group of lawmakers to urge President Biden last month to complete the seizure, calling the delay because of such fears “unacceptable.”
The tanker was sitting off the coast of Texas for several months because the government had trouble finding a company willing to offload it and risk Iranian retaliation. While the court filings in the case had remained sealed for months, elements of the effective American seizure of the M/T Suez Rajan had been in public view. sanctions.Ī spokesman for the Justice Department said it planned to issue a statement about the matter soon. The court filings offer a rare glimpse into what prosecutors describe as an oil smuggling operation that kept a tanker’s location from being accurately tracked, falsified cargo records and deployed other techniques in an attempt to evade U.S. On Wednesday, a high-ranking Israeli defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the seizure raised new fears that Iran could hijack more tankers in an effort to deter the United States from repeating the move. In July, Iranian state news media said the Guards’ navy commander had warned that Tehran would hold Washington responsible if the tanker’s oil was unloaded, without giving further details. military to increase patrols and deploy additional assets to protect shipping lanes. After the tanker began to steam toward the United States last spring, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps seized two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting the U.S. The seizure of the oil from the vessel, the M/T Suez Rajan, is part of a larger and shadowy conflict with Iran.
sanctions against Iran, after it raised the threat of prosecution to get the tanker brought to American waters, newly unsealed court papers show. The United States government has seized nearly one million barrels of Iranian crude oil that it says was being smuggled to China in violation of U.S.
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