Iran seizes Houston-bound oil tanker in Gulf of Oman | | AW

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

46% :"The working hypothesis at the moment is that it could either be an arbitrary detention of a vessel by Iran in response to the US sailing its first unmanned vessel through the region last week, as a show of force," he said.
45% : Munro Anderson, with maritime security company Dryad, said separately that Iran usually detained vessels for "leverage or signalling".
45% : Iran last November released two Greek-flagged tankers it had seized in the Gulf in May in response to the confiscation of oil by the United States from an Iranian-flagged tanker off the Greek coast.
44% :Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman in international waters on Thursday, the US Navy said, the latest in a series of seizures or attacks on commercial vessels in sensitive Gulf waters since 2019.
42% : "Since 2019 there has been a series of attacks on shipping in the strategic Gulf waters at times of tension between the United States and Iran.
39% :About a fifth of the world's crude oil and oil products passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow choke point between Iran and Oman which the Advantage Sweet had passed through, according to data from analytics firm Vortexa.
38% : "Iran's continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters are a threat to maritime security and the global economy," the US Navy said, adding that Iran has in the past two years unlawfully seized at least five commercial vessels in the Middle East.
36% : "Or, it could be in response to the sanctions on the 24th (of April) by the US against personnel in Iran connected to the IRGC (elite Revolutionary Guards).
35% : Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear pact with world powers have stalled since September over a range of issues, including the Islamic Republic's violent crackdown on popular protests, Tehran's sale of drones to Russia and acceleration of its nuclear programme.

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