The United States confiscated 600,000 barrels of smuggled Iranian crude oil from a tanker as part of their new wave of sanction which started last week. they confiscated Lana off the coast of Greece with cargo of oil carried to US on Thursday.
Two sanctions targeted the tanker Lana. Because,
- Russian owned the ship previously.
- It was carrying Iranian crude oil.
Lana the name is when Iran owned the ship on 31 st March and flied Iranian flag on 01st May. Pegas was the ships previous name and also one of the five vessels named by Washington in a sanction against Promsvyazbank, which is a bank critical to Russian defense.
Thus, this is not the first time the ship has been seized. Greece seized the vessel earlier on Greece water with 19 Russian crew members on board. Greek authority confirmed that the seizure was part of EU sanction against Russia for invading Ukraine and the vessel was later released.
What was the new sanction about?
The new sanction imposed by US last week was on an oil smuggling and money laundering network. The network works for Quds Force supported by Russian, a foreign operations unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. As a result, US confiscated 600,000 barrels of smuggled Iranian crude oil.
Iran’s response
Iranian government considered US confiscating their crude oil as “a clear act of piracy”. Sanction against Iran has been going on with US confiscating four cargo of Iranian fuel boarded ships in 2020. The US confiscated the vessels and transferred the oils to other ships and sailed to US with help of some undisclosed foreign partners.
What will happen to Iran’s nuclear plan deal?
Last week’s incident happened amid hopes for reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear plans with lifting of all sanctions, including the targeting of Iranian oil. However the new sanction and seizure of Iranian oil by US suggests otherwise.