TEHRAN: Iran's state TV English-language channel has released a video of a ship seized by Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces accused of smuggling fuel out of the country.
The Press TV report showed the ship's registration number on its bridge, matching that of the MT Riah, a UAE-based vessel that turned off its location tracker as it entered Iranian territorial waters early Sunday.
Iranian state media earlier Thursday said a tanker was seized with a crew of 12 aboard for smuggling fuel from Iranian smugglers to foreign customers and was intercepted south of Iran's Larak Island in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. It did not name the vessel or identify the nationalities of the crew onboard.
A US official had expressed suspicion that the Panamanian-flagged Riah had been seized in Iranian territorial waters.
Britain said on Thursday that a tanker seized by Iran on suspicion of smuggling fuel in the Gulf was not British-flagged.
"We are not currently aware of any UK interests in this vessel," a British government spokesman said.
