DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An American-owned oil tanker long presumed of bring approved Iranian unrefined oil unloaded its freight near Texas on Sunday, tracking information revealed, even as Tehran has threatened to target shipping in the Persian Gulf over it.
Ship-tracking information examined by The Associated Press revealed the Marshall Islands-flagged Suez Rajan started the hourslong ship-to-ship transfer of its oil to another tanker, the MR Euphrates, near Galveston, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of Houston.
The fate of the freight aboard the Suez Rajan hasactually endedupbeing stuck in the larger stress inbetween the U.S. and the Islamic Republic, even as Tehran and Washington work towards a trade of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian properties in South Korea for the release of 5 Iranian-Americans held in Tehran. Iran hasactually been attempting to avert sanctions and continue selling its oil abroad, while the U.S. and its allies haveactually been taking freights because 2019 after the nation’s nuclear offer enabling the trade collapsed.
Already, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has cautioned that those included in unloading the Suez Rajan’s freight “should anticipate to be struck back.” The U.S. Navy hasactually increased its existence progressively in current weeks in the Mideast, sendingout the troop-and-aircraft-carrying USS Bataan through the Strait of Hormuz in current days and thinkingabout putting equipped workers on industrial ships takingatrip through the strait to stop Iran from taking extra ships.
U.S. authorities and the owners of the Suez Rajan, the Los Angeles-based personal equity company Oaktree Capital Management, did not respond to demands for remark.
The legend over the Suez Rajan started in February 2022, when the group United Against Nuclear Iran stated it presumed the tanker brought oil from Iran’s Khargh Island, its primary oil circulation terminal in the Persian Gulf.
For months, the ship sat in the South China Sea off the northeast coast of Singapore priorto unexpectedly cruising for the Gulf of Mexico without description. Analysts think the vessel’s freight mostlikely hasactually been taken by American authorities, though there still were no public court files early Sunday including the Suez Rajan.
In the meantime, Iran has took 2 tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, consistingof one with freight for U.S.