{"id":42175,"date":"2024-04-13T18:22:13","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T18:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=42175"},"modified":"2024-04-13T18:22:15","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T18:22:15","slug":"irans-revolutionary-guards-seize-israeli-affiliated-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2024\/04\/13\/irans-revolutionary-guards-seize-israeli-affiliated-ship\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards seize Israeli-affiliated ship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A vessel has been seized by Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards in the strait of Hormuz, 50 nautical miles off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Commandos dropped from a helicopter on to an Israeli-affiliated container ship, the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, and Iran\u2019s state news agency said the vessel was being transferred to Iran\u2019s territorial waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said the special forces unit of the guards\u2019 navy carried out the attack on the container ship, which is associated with the London-based Zodiac Maritime ship management company, part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer\u2019s Zodiac Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geneva-based MSC later acknowledged the seizure and said 25 crew had been aboard the vessel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said in a post on X that the incident had taken place north-east of Fujairah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UKMTO had earlier said: \u201cVessel reported to have been seized by regional authorities. Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity to UKMTO.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The statement followed shortly after an initial report that the vessel had been \u201cboarded\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strait of Hormuz lies between the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, with Iran to the north. It is one of the world\u2019s most strategically important shipping locations, providing the only sea passage from the Gulf to the open ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seizure comes amid escalating tensions in the region, with the US president, Joe Biden, saying he\u00a0expected an Iranian attack on Israel\u00a0\u201csooner rather than later\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel, and Iran will not succeed,\u201d Biden told reporters on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier the White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, had warned that the threat of a significant Iranian attack on Israel remained \u201cviable\u201d despite Washington-led efforts, including calls to Tehran from the UK and Germany, to deter a serious escalation in the conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The German airline Lufthansa said on Friday its planes would no longer use Iranian airspace and extended its suspension of flights to and from Tehran until Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qantas has\u00a0paused its direct flights from Perth to London\u00a0because the 17-and-a-half-hour journey is possible only by using Iranian airspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran has\u00a0threatened reprisals\u00a0against Israel for a strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria on 1 April, in which seven members of the Revolutionary Guards, including two generals, were killed, sparking fears that an already volatile situation in the Middle East could quickly spiral further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A vessel has been seized by Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards in the strait of Hormuz, 50 nautical miles off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. Commandos dropped from a helicopter on to an Israeli-affiliated container ship, the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, and Iran\u2019s state news agency said the vessel was being transferred to Iran\u2019s territorial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":42177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[10494,5569,5304,5178,5717,10767,9088,9478,6732,11858,66,5579,9390,1759,3095,2471,6213,9515,5423,3684,8719,7693,10349,7964,12993,9877,3805,5655,12778,5250,12972,5818,12151,3349,7444,10329,12605,3080,6348,11331,10786,2354,6571,2982,36,10353],"class_list":["post-42175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-airline","tag-arab","tag-attack","tag-biden","tag-billionaire","tag-conflict","tag-container","tag-dropped","tag-emirates","tag-flagged","tag-germany","tag-gulf","tag-helicopter","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-joe-biden","tag-john-kirby","tag-killed","tag-lies","tag-london","tag-middle-east","tag-national-security","tag-navy","tag-north","tag-oman","tag-paramilitary","tag-president","tag-security","tag-seized","tag-ship","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-strike","tag-suspension","tag-syria","tag-tehran","tag-trade","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-us","tag-us-president","tag-vessel","tag-washington","tag-white","tag-white-house","tag-world","tag-x"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42178,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42175\/revisions\/42178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}