Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps terrorists boarded the Greek-owned, Marshall Islands-flagged tanker "St. Nikolas" Thursday in the Sea of Oman. This action is linked to a US enforcement action against Iranian sanctions-busting operations in February 2023.
Around 3:30 a.m. local time, St. Nikolas reported unauthorized armed men boarding the ship some 50 nautical miles east of Sohar, Oman, and well short of the Bab el-Maneb strait that has seen so much action between Houthis and commercial maritime traffic. Communication was lost with the ship, and the ship changed course toward Iranian territorial waters. It is now confirmed that the ship is heading for the Iranian port of Bandar-e-Jask.
The St. Nikolas carried about 1 million barrels of Iraqi oil loaded at Basra and was enroute to Aliaga in western Turkey. The vessel is owned by Empire Navigation, a Greece-based shipping company.
This Iranian video documents the operation.
When announcing the seizure of the St. Nikolas, the Iranian spokesman said, "After the theft of Iranian oil by the United States last year, St Nikolas tanker was seized by Iran's Navy this morning with a judicial order ... it is en route to Iranian ports."
As it turns out, the St. Nikolas has a very complicated history.
In 2022, Empire Navigation received $1.2 million for a charter of the Suez Rajan, a tanker now known as the St. Nikolas. While under charter, it was involved in an operation to evade US sanctions on Iranian oil. The US obtained a civil forfeiture order for the oil in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, and the US Navy seized the ship near Singapore in April 2023 and took it to Houston, Texas, where the US government had the oil removed and sold.
The ship ended up back in the hands of Empire Navigation, which changed its name to St. Nikolas. Everyone was happy but the Iranians.
Almost immediately after the seizure of the Suez Rajan, Iran retaliated by seizing two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, namely the Advantage Sweet and Niovi, which it continues to hold to this day. The former was carrying cargo for major U.S. oil company Chevron Corp, however Iran’s reasoning for the Niovi seizure are a bit murkier. A few months later, the Bahamas-flagged Richmond Voyager, also chartered by U.S.-based Chevron, narrowly avoided boarding in the Gulf of Oman thanks to the arrival of a U.S. Navy warship. Iran had accused the Richmond Voyager of colliding with an Iranian ship and claimed to have had a court order for its seizure.
Using a New ID, Suez Rajan, Tanker in Iranian Forfeiture Case, Departs U.S. (maritime-executive.com)
The Curious Backstory on Iran's Latest Tanker Seizure in Gulf of Oman (gcaptain.com)
This seizure by Iran differs in major ways from the Houthis lobbing missiles at passing ships.
First, this operation was carried out by the IRGC, making it an official operation of the Iranian government. Invoking a "judicial order" makes the governmental nature of the action very clear. The St. Nikolas is flagged in the Marshall Islands. They are linked to the United States by a "compact of free association." This makes the US responsible for the defense of the Marshall Islands. The Iranians pirating the St. Nikolas is no different from them pirating a US-flagged ship in terms of our responsibilities and rights.
This is Joe Biden's foreign policy coming back in spades. When he entered office, his foreign policy and national security team were determined to create a third Obama administration. One of their objectives was to jumpstart the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran. To that end, they have allowed Iranian proxies to attack US troops and bribed them with $6 billion.
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Instead, what Biden has done is show extraordinary weakness in the face of nearly all threats from Iran and encouraged adventurism, like today's episode, which force an armed confrontation or require the US to look weaker still.