Iran’s foreign minister declared on 27 April that the crew members of a seized Portuguese-flagged vessel with connections to Israel have received consular access and are predicted to be released.
Vessel Seized
On 13 April, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized the vessel, comprising a crew of 25, in the Strait of Hormuz, days after Tehran pledged to retaliate for a suspected strike by Israel on the consulate in Damascus.
Iran said that it could be closing the crucial shipping path. Latest attacks on merchant shipping in the waters of the Red Sea as well as the Gulf of Aden by the Houthis, asserting to show solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza during Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas, have impacted global shipping.
Crew Members To Be Returned
Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iran’s Foreign Minister, informed Paulo Rangel, his Portuguese counterpart, over a telephone call that the humanitarian problem of releasing the ship’s crew members is of grave concern to them. He was quoted as saying that the crew members would be turned over to the ambassadors based in Tehran. However, there is no clarity on when this would take place.
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Source: MarineInsight
