US-Iran Tensions: The Iranian Navy Seizes A Texas-Bound Oil Tanker In The Gulf of Oman

Video released by the Iranian State Sponsored TV, IRNA (Image Credit: AFP)

Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged US-bound oil tanker owned by a Chinese company in the Gulf of Oman, north of Oman’s capital Muscat

Middle East has always been a source of contention for the rest of the world because of regional oil and natural gas rivalry and US dominance in the Middle East. Following the end of World War II, the Middle East became a point of contention between world powers, shifting the focus away from Europe.

Several events occurred during the cold war period and even after the cold war, one of which was the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution. Following the end of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini dethroned the titular ruler of Iran, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution, 1979 (Image Credit: Michel Lipchitz/AP)

Iran’s relationship with the United States has since deteriorated. These two countries are adversaries because Iran believes that the US presence in the region prevents Iran from exerting the desired influence in the region. The US maintains multiple air and navy bases in the region to secure its interests and trillions of dollars invested in the region’s oil and natural gas business.

The US Navy and airforce have quite a large presence in the region with bases in Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Syria, and Djibouti. Prior to 1979, the US also had a significant presence in Iran, and they essentially ruled it through the titular king of Iran, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was reinstated by the US and its allies after overthrowing Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iran’s former elected Prime Minister.

Mohammad Mossaddegh was deposed by the US and its allies because he nationalized the country’s oil industry by removing the US and its allies’ ownership of the oil business in Iran. That event has been a foundation for today’s government to preserve national security, and today’s Iranian government is highly critical of what the US is doing in the region, which is why conflicts between these two nations have been an ongoing event in this region.

Iran seized Advantage Sweet, a tanker en route to the USA

Marshal-Island flagged Advantage Sweet in the Persian Gulf (Image Credit: Reuters)

Recently, the Iranian navy intercepted a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker on its way to Huston, Texas, in the Gulf of Oman, north of Oman’s capital Muscat. According to the US Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet, the tanker has been identified as the “Advantage Sweet.”

The tanker, Advantage Sweet, issued a distress call at 1:15 PM while it was on the international water off the coast of Oman on the south and Iran on the north, according to the satellite tracking data for the vessel from MarineTraffic.com.

According to Iran’s state-run news agency, IRNA, an unknown ship crashed with an Iranian ship in the Persian Gulf region; last night, causing several Iranian crew members to go missing and get injured. In retaliation, the Iranian government has seized the tanker; Advantage Sweet.

Previously, the US Navy stated that the taker had been captured by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, but it was later verified that it was done by Iranian Navy commandos on the basis of the video released by the Iranian government. According to the footage released by the Iranian government, camouflaged Iranian naval commandos conducted a helicopter-borne operation in the Gulf of Oman to seize an oil ship bound for the United States.

The Iranian government has not supplied confirmation of the collision, and they have captured the ship as a bargaining tool with the Western powers and threatened the West. Western countries are in disarray over the Ukraine situation, and this could be a ploy to divert their focus away from it and keep them busy with other issues like this.

2019 mine attack on a Norwegian-owned Front Altair tanker (Photo credit should read – ISNA/AFP/Getty Images)

This is not the first time the Iranian regime is doing such an act. In the two years since the termination of the Iran nuclear deal, the Iranian regime has been involved in five similar incidents in the Persian Gulf region.

US Army General Erik Kurilla, the top US commander in the Middle East, directed that the event was illegal and that Iran should immediately release the ship. Iran in 2019, mined a tanker in the Persian Gulf region which damaged the tanker severely, and in 2020, a fatal drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker allegedly carried out by the Iranian government killed two European crew members.

General Qasem Soleimani (Image Credit: AFP/GETTY)

Iran is in the mood for retribution since the US government killed the Iranian military General Qasem Soleimani at Baghdad International Airport in Iraq was on his way to meet Iraqi PM Adil Abdul-Mahdi on On 3 January 2020.

Iran is also using militia groups in Syria to attack US bases in Syria. In March, Iranian-backed militia groups carried out an attack on U.S. forces. In that incident, one US contractor was killed, five U.S. service members and a second U.S. contractor wounded, and the US launched airstrikes against the militia group’s strongholds in Syria.

Three additional attacks were launched this month against US outposts in Syria, including the American facility southeast of the Syrian province of Der el-Zour.

Things in the Middle East have gotten worse for the US with the advent of Joe Biden, who has not paid enough attention to the region since withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and has vowed to make Saudi Arabia a pariah state as a result of the alleged murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The vacuum is now being filled by China and Russia, particularly China, which brokered an almost unthinkable peace pact between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

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