Iran's Revolutionary Guard announces seizure of oil tanker smuggling fuel in the Strait of Hormuz

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces have seized a foreign tanker and 12 crewmen accused of smuggling Iranian fuel, according to a report Thursday on Iran's state television.

The seizure is the latest in a series of attacks involving ships and tankers mostly in the vicinity of the Persian Gulf that have sent tensions soaring between the United States and Iran.

The incidents follow the launch of the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" campaign of heightened sanctions that are aimed at forcing Tehran back to the negotiating table after the United States walked away from the Iran nuclear deal last year.

The television report said the tanker was delivering around 1 million liters of Iranian fuel from Iranian smugglers to foreign clients. The tanker was detained on Sunday, the report said, near Iran's Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway through which a great deal of the world's oil is transported.

Under the tough new sanctions imposed by Washington, Iran is not permitted to export any fuel at all.

It was not immediately clear whether the tanker referred to in the report is the same as a UAE-based tanker that went missing in waters near Iran late Saturday. U.S. officials had expressed suspicion that Iran had detained the Panama-registered Riah after its transponders were switched off.

Iran's Foreign Ministry subsequently said Iran had gone to the rescue of the tanker after it broke down, then towed it to shore for repairs.