Iran releases Marshall Islands-flagged tanker and crew it seized last week

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran on Wednesday released a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker with all its 21 crew members, days after Tehran seized the ship without explanation, the vessel’s managers said.

Tehran had no immediate comment on the release of the Talara, which marked the first ship seizure by Iran in months. The Middle East remains tense after Iran's 12-day war with Israel in June, and as concerns remain over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

Cyprus-based Columbia Shipmanagement said the crew “are safe and in good spirits.”

“We have informed their families, and the vessel is now free to resume normal operations,” the firm said.

It added that “no allegations were made against the vessel, her crew and the vessel’s managers and owners.”

Ship-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed the Talara traveling away from Iran.

The data also suggested Iranian authorities offloaded its cargo of high sulphur gasoil as the ship was traveling in ballast. The oil shipment website Tanker Trackers, citing satellite photos, said it appeared Iran offloaded its cargo on Tuesday, before letting it go.

Iran's military seized the vessel Friday as it traveled through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil traded passes. The ship had been traveling from Ajman, United Arab Emirates, onward to Singapore.

The U.S. Navy has blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a fatal drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew members in 2021. Those attacks began after U.S. President Donald Trump in his first term in office unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

In May 2022, Iran took two Greek tankers and held them until November of that year. Iran seized the Portuguese-flagged cargo ship MSC Aries in April 2024.

Those attacks found themselves subsumed by the Iranian-backed Houthis assaults targeting ships during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which drastically reduced shipping in the crucial Red Sea corridor.