IRGC’s New Massive Ship To Support Fleet Of Small Fast Boats Against US Navy

“The Revolutionary Guards Navy today (Friday) seized two Greek oil tankers for violations they have carried out in the waters of the Persian Gulf,” the IRGC said in a statement on Friday, shortly after Nour News -- a website affiliated to the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Ali Shamkhani -- warned of "punitive action" against Athens due to the seizure. The statement gave no further details about the alleged violations. 

The Greek tankers are Delta Poseidon and Prudent Warrior, and were captured near Asalouyeh off the coasts of Iran’s Bushehr Province and the Hendurabi island near Bandar Lengeh in Hormozgan province, respectively. 

Nour News said on Twitter, "Following the seizure of an Iranian tanker by the Greek government and the transfer of its oil to the Americans, Iran has decided to take punitive action against Greece."

The US Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet said it was “looking into” reports about the seizure of the Greek oil tankers, with Commander Timothy Hawkins telling The Associated Press that the Navy was continuing to investigate, without further elaboration.

A US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Washington Post that the two ships had apparently “come close to — but not in — Iranian territorial waters before the seizure,” adding that the ships also had turned off their tracking devices and neither had issued a mayday or a call for help.

In total, nine Greek nationals have been taken captive by the IRGC following the seizure of the two tankers.

Greek authorities last month impounded the Iranian-flagged Pegas, with 19 Russian crew members on board, near the coast of the southern island of Evia due to EU sanctions. The United States later confiscated the Iranian oil cargo held onboard and chartered a tanker owned by Dynacom Tankers Management to send it to the United States. 

The Pegas was later released because of confusion about the sanctions over its owners. It was unclear whether the cargo was impounded because it was Iranian oil or due to the sanctions on the tanker over its Russian links as the two countries face separate US sanctions.

The aframax Lana, formerly named Pegas, was detained on April 15 by Greek authorities and was identified as the Russian-flagged Pegas and the assumption at the time was that it was laden with Russian crude.

The Pegas was among five vessels designated by Washington on February 22 -- two days before Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- for sanctions against Promsvyazbank, a bank viewed as critical to Russia's defense sector.

Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization said last week that the tanker had sought refuge along the Greek coast after experiencing technical problems and poor weather. It called the seizure of its cargo "a clear example of piracy".

Earlier on Friday, the Iranian foreign ministry summoned a Swiss diplomat in Tehran to protest against the Pegas oil seizure. Switzerland represents US interests after relations were severed between Tehran and Washington in 1980.

"The Islamic Republic expressed its deep concern over the US government's continued violation of international laws and international maritime conventions," state media quoted the foreign ministry as saying.

On Wednesday, the United States imposed sanctions on what it described a Russian-backed oil smuggling and money laundering network for Iran's Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force.

In 2019, Iran seized a British tanker near the Strait of Hormuz for alleged maritime violations two weeks after British forces detained an Iranian tanker near Gibraltar, accusing it of shipping oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions.

The NYT says its sources believe quadcopter suicide drones were used in the attack. Given the relatively smaller size of these drones it is not clear if they were launched from inside Iran or a forward base near its borders.

Iranian media on Thursday had reported a fire in Parchin military complex, near the capital Tehran, saying that a young engineer was killed at a defense ministry center developing nuclear, missile and drome technologies.

Although no one has taken responsibility, Israel is strongly suspected of conducting multiple sabotage attacks, and possibly drone strikes, against targets in Iran, and even the assassination of its top nuclear operative in November 2020.

Israeli media attributed one particular striketo an Israeli aerial attack, which reportedly destroyed hundreds of drones at an airbase belonging to the Revolutionary Guard in the Iranian province of Kermanshah in February.

Iran has made notable advances in the past few years in producing effective drones that have been widely used by its proxies throughout the region against Saudi Arabia, in Iraq and against a US base in Syria.

Just three days before this attack, an Iranian Qods (Quds) Force colonel was killed outside his home in Tehran by two gunmen on motorcycle. He was reportedly involved in clandestine terror operations against Israel, which has apparently told the United States it was responsible for the killing.

Infuriated by a leak to The New York Times about the assassination of Hassan Sayyad-Khodaei -- a member of IRGC’ Quds Force, responsible for operations outside Iran’s borders – the head of Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Ram Ben Barak rejected the report on Thursday, saying, “It mainly harms trust.”

The former deputy chief of the Mossad spy agency said, “As far as I know, we did not inform anyone or take responsibility, and that is for the best.”

“We have very many close relationships and a lot of cooperation between us, which all depend on trust, and when it is violated in some way then it damages future cooperation. I hope the Americans investigate the leak and figure out where it came from and why it occurred,” he added.

According to Israeli media, political and security chiefs held consultations after the leak and plan to issue advisories against traveling to some destinations that border the Islamic Republic, including UAE, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, and possibly Turkey.

Saying that Israel was surprised at the leak, an Israeli official told Channel 12 News that there are currently no specific intelligence warnings of attacks but Israelis would be advised to be particularly cautious when visiting those countries due to the presence of terror infrastructures there.

According to The New York Times article, an intelligence official said the Israelis killed Khodaei as a warning to Iran to halt the operations of a covert group within the Quds Force known as Unit 840, tasked with abductions and assassinations of foreigners around the world, including Israeli civilians and officials.

Despite the government disrupting Internet connectivity, social media users have posted several videos showing a very large crowd in Abadan chanting slogans against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei such as “Death to Khamenei”, “Shame on You Khamenei, Leave the Country Alone”, and “Khamenei Is a Murderer, His Rule Is Illegitimate”.

Protesters also chanted against the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij militia telling them to “get lost’ and the state run broadcaster which is accused of biased reporting and censorship of the news related to the collapse of the building.

There are also videos on social media showing protests and mourning rallies in Khorramshahr, a major port city very close to Abadan, Behbahan which is also in Khuzestan Province, Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan Province, and Shahin Shahr in the central Esfahan Province, where many Khuzestani refugees of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) still live.

But Khuzestan is the heart of Iran's oil industry and further unrest could have economic consequences for the government.

Many are angry that in his meeting with lawmakers Wednesday, Khamenei did not express condolences to the families of the victims or mention the tragedy that had happened two days earlier.

In a message Thursday which was read in a meeting chaired by President Ebrahim Raeisi, he called the incident “sorrowful” and called for the rescue operation to be accelerated and the casualty toll minimized, thanked government officials, and extended his condolences to the bereaved families.

“The unfortunate incident in Abadan, in addition to the need for expediting action and the use of all capacities to reduce casualties, which is now of paramount importance, lays the responsibility with all of us — the officials of the country — to pursue the culprits of the incident and to give exemplary punishment to them with the cooperation of the judiciary, as well as to make a concerted effort to prevent its recurrence in all parts of the country,” he said in his message.

But this for many is too little and too late, as they increasingly see the government to be incabable and the ruling elite self-centered.

Videos on social media also show angry protesters on Thursday evening torching the shop of the father of the owner of the building, Hossein Abdolbaghi. Locals are highly skeptical of authorities' claim that Abdolbaghi died in the collapse and accuse them of a cover up. There is also a video showing protesters trying to break the gate of Abadan’s municipality while chanting slogans against Khamenei.

Vice President Mohammad Mokhber and Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi visited the site Friday morning. The governor of Abadan, Ehsan Abbaspour, told reporters that the death toll has now reached 24. He also warned about the collapse of the rest of the building and urged locals who have refused to leave the site to return to their homes.

Residents fear that authorities may end the rescue operations and say the strong odor rising from the rubble means more bodies are trapped and need to be pulled out.

The global Internet freedom watchdog NetBlocks on Friday confirmed a disruption across Iran with high impact to fixed-line services and said backbone gateway provider Telecommunications Infrastructures Company (TIC) has reported overnight maintenance work in progress at its central datacenters.

Many social media users, however, are suspicious of the timing of the maintenance work and say the disruption was a preventative measure against protesters communicating and spreading the message of protests to the rest of the country.

The unnamed official told Reuters that some progress has been made in talks with Teheran but "it's not enough".

He made the comment in reaction to Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who said earlier on Thursday that he may meet his Saudi counterpart soon in a third country.

"Iran must build confidence for future cooperation, and there are several issues that can be discussed with Tehran if it has the desire to de-escalate tensions in the region," the official said.

Amir-Abdollahian said at World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in the Swiss city of Davos that the Islamic Republic has made "minimal but good progress" in relations with Saudi Arabia.

The White House said on Thursday that two senior US officials – namely Brett McGurk, Biden's top White House adviser on the Middle East, and Amos Hochstein, the State Department's energy envoy -- visited Saudi Arabia this week for talks that included global energy supplies, Iran and other regional issues.

"I will confirm that Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein were in the region to follow up on conversations on a range of issues including Iran’s destabilizing activities, ensuring stable global energy supplies and other regional issues," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Earlier in the week, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister reiterated that there had been some progress in talks with Iran but "not enough" and that the kingdom's hands remain outstretched to Tehran.

Sunni power Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, which are locked in proxy conflicts across the Middle East, have held five rounds of talks hosted by Baghdad.