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Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have seized an Israeli-owned container ship in the latest escalation of hostilities between the Islamic republic and Israel.
The capture of the vessel comes as Tehran vowed to respond to a suspected Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consular building in Damascus this month that killed seven guardsmen, including two senior commanders.
Video posted online showed two figures sliding from a helicopter down ropes onto the deck of the MSC Aries, a 366-meter-long container ship, in the Gulf of Oman. The ship is owned by Zodiac Maritime, a company controlled by the Israeli Ofer family.
IRNA, Iran’s state news agency, said the Guards Naval Forces captured the vessel.
The seizure occurred in the Gulf of Oman, near the critical point of the Strait of Hormuz, which separates the Arabian Peninsula from Iran.
The Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company, the world’s largest container shipping company, confirmed that the vessel had been seized by “Iranian authorities” and was owned by Zodiac.
The vessel was operating a service for MSC from Khalifa Port in the United Arab Emirates to Nhava Sheva in Mumbai.
“It has since been diverted from its itinerary to Iran,” the company said. There were 25 crew members on board the ship. “We are working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure their well-being and the safe return of the vessel,” MSC said.
The seizure is the first in waters off Iran since January, when Iranian forces seized the Greek-owned tanker St Nikolas in a similar location.
The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations Office, based in Dubai, said the vessel had been “seized by regional authorities”.
A bulletin on the incident from Ambrey, a British maritime intelligence company, said the Zodiac had suffered “hostile Iranian acts” in the past due to its Israeli ownership.
“Israeli-owned vessels are advised to reconsider transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” Ambrey wrote.
Iranian forces have previously focused on seizing oil and tankers, rather than container ships.
There was no immediate comment from Zodiac.
The waters of the Strait of Hormuz, near where the MSC Aries was seized, are the world’s most important route for oil tankers, carrying oil from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf producers to the rest of the world. They also provide an important route for container ships to and from Khalifa and Dubai’s vast Jebel Ali container port.
Container ships have mostly stopped sailing in waters off Yemen since December, after the Iran-backed Houthis launched a series of attacks on ships linked to Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States, claiming they were acting in support of the Palestinians in Gaza. Until now, however, the route through the Strait of Hormuz had not been such a big concern.
The MSC Aries’ automatic identification system stopped transmitting shortly after the ship left Khalifa. Ships previously seized by Iran, including the St Nikolas, have generally been brought to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.