Iran claims fighting off US bid to apprehend vessel

Agencies Tehran Iranian forces took back one of their country’s oil tankers that they allege had been apprehended and spirited away by US forces in the Gul...

AgenciesTehranIranian forces took back one of their country’s oil tankers that they allege had been apprehended and spirited away by US forces in the Gulf of Oman, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a Wednesday statement.Referring to an “act of piracy,” the IRGC said US forces had commandeered the ship and guided it out of Iranian waters before Iranian helicopter crews responded and retrieved it. According to the Iranians, the US Navy tried to repel the Iranian rescue mission, but failed. No further information was available about the incident.“With the timely and authoritative action of the Guards naval forces, the US terrorist Navy’s operation to steal Iranian oil in the Sea of Oman failed,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement published on Wednesday by Iranian state media.“The tanker carrying Iran’s oil docked at the port of Bandar Abbas on October 25.” The development comes amid faltering efforts to revive Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers that would see a lifting of US sanctions on its oil exports. More nuclear talks are expected later this month.Negotiations with the n0n-US parties to the 2015 nuclear deal are scheduled to resume at the end of November.The administration of US President Joe Biden has warned repeatedly that time is running out to reverse the US withdrawal from the deal ordered by his predecessor Donald Trump. Washington is not directly participating in the talks but is taking part through European Union intermediaries. Trump’s abandonment of the agreement and reimposition of sweeping economic sanctions prompted Iran to suspend many of the commitments it made in return for the lifting of the sanctions.Western governments issued a joint statement on Saturday expressing “grave” concern over Iran’s production of highly enriched uranium, which they said met “no credible civilian need”. Iran retorted that the output was “for medical supply and for use as fuel in the Tehran research reactor”, and reiterated its readiness to resume talks – which have been on hold since before President Ebrahim Raisi’s election in June.