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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized an Israeli-owned container ship in the latest escalation of hostilities between the Islamic Republic and Israel.
The ship’s capture comes as Tehran vowed to respond to a suspected Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consular building in Damascus this month, which killed seven members of the guards, including two senior commanders.
A video posted online shows two figures sliding from a helicopter on ropes to the deck of the MSC Aries, a 366m-long container ship, in the Gulf of Oman. The ship is owned by Zodiac Maritime, a company controlled by the Israeli Ofer family.
IRNA, Iran’s official news agency, said the Guards’ naval forces had captured the ship.
The seizure took place in the Gulf of Oman, near the critical chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz, separating the Arabian Peninsula from Iran.
Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company, the world’s largest container shipping line, confirmed that the ship had been seized by “Iranian authorities” and belonged to Zodiac.
The vessel was operating a service for MSC from Khalifa Port in the United Arab Emirates to Nhava Sheva in Mumbai.
“It has since been diverted from its route to Iran,” the company said. He added that the ship had 25 crew members on board. “We are working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure their well-being and the safe return of the ship,” MSC said.
The seizure is the first in waters off Iran since January, when Iranian forces seized the Greek tanker St Nikolas in a similar position.
The UK’s Dubai-based Maritime Trade Operations Office said the ship had been “seized by regional authorities”.
A bulletin on the incident from Ambrey, a British maritime intelligence company, said Zodiac had faced “Iranian hostile acts” in the past due to its Israeli ownership.
“Israeli vessels are advised to reconsider their transit through the Strait of Hormuz,” Ambrey wrote.
Iranian forces have previously focused on seizing tankers and petroleum products, rather than container ships.
There was no immediate comment from Zodiac.
The waters of the Strait of Hormuz, near where the MSC Aries was seized, provide the world’s most important route for tankers, carrying oil from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf producers to the rest of the world. They also provide an important route for container ships to and from Khalifa and Dubai’s sprawling Jebel Ali container port.
Container ships have mostly stopped plying the waters off Yemen since December, after the Iran-backed Houthis launched a series of attacks on ships linked to Israel, UK and the United States, claiming to act in support of the Palestinians in Gaza. However, the route through the Strait of Hormuz has not until now been of such concern.
The MSC Aries’ automatic identification system stopped transmitting shortly after the ship left Khalifa. Ships previously seized by Iran, including the St Nikolas, have generally been transported to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.